While Phil Spencer has been working hard to revitalize and rejuvenate the Xbox brand over the last few years, a lot of its problems are inherited from the tenure of Don Mattrick, under whose leadership Xbox steered away from an exclusives driven strategy to focusing on media and Kinect.

Mattrick led Xbox for a few years before eventually leaving and ceding the position to Phil Spencer. However, the irony of the situation is that when he used to work at EA Canada before joining Microsoft, he flat out had no faith in a Microsoft created console ever working. Seamus Blackley, one of the creators of the Xbox, recounted on Twitter how when Microsoft had tried to speak to EA Canada to pitch the console to them ahead of the very first Xbox’s release, Mattrick had tried to block them, believing that Xbox would never work.

Of course, Mattrick would then head (and nearly sink) the console he didn’t believe was possible just a few years later; thankfully, Spencer came around and turned it around. Xbox, in spite of Don Mattrick, finds itself in a pretty good place today.

I’ve never talked about this before, but the irony of Don Mattrick as Xbox Chief was huge for me: when I first came to EA Canada to present the idea of a Microsoft console, he nearly blocked me from addressing the company because he didn’t believe it was possible. It was tense. pic.twitter.com/3pqRq4rGBL

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) March 4, 2019

The infamous Xbox One reveal debacle came to a head when, shortly after confirming that Microsoft would be going back on the controversial DRM and internet connectivity policies that had made their third console so reviled months before it even hit the market, the then head of the Xbox division, and also commonly considered to be a destructive force within it (overseeing the dilution of Xbox’s focus from being a core console to a media device, Kinect, the shuttering and cancellation of multiple first party studios and franchises, and of course, the original Xbox One) announced that he would be leaving Microsoft and joining Zynga instead. Zynga is a major casual and social games company, behind titles such as Farmville, and it was in a period of decline when Mattrick took over two years ago.

But now, it seems that he will already be quitting it. Mattrick is stepping down from his position as CEO of the company, and in his place, it seems like Zynga’s founder and chairman of the board of directors, Mark Pincus, will return as CEO. he was the CEO before Don Matrick as well.

“I want to thank Don for his incredible efforts and leadership. He has laid groundwork that will benefit our players and company into the future,” said Pincus in an announcement.

“This hard work for our mobile players has resulted in bookings growing from 27 per cent mobile when Don joined to 60 per cent by the end of last year,” he added. “Further, to deliver unique and differentiated value to our mobile players, Don and the team acquired NaturalMotion. NaturalMotion has surprised and delighted the world with Clumsy Ninja and CSR Racing resulting in more than 160m installs.”

“Now that we are a mobile first company, it’s time to renew our focus on our founding mission to connect the world through games and our vision to make play and social games a mass market activity,” Pincus continued. “I am returning to the company that I love in order to accelerate innovation in the most popular categories like Action Strategy and strengthen our focus on our core areas like Invest and Express. I look forward to partnering with our leaders to intensify our focus on social experiences for the millions of consumers who play our games.”

It does not appear as if Mattrick was forced out or anything, either- it sounds like he decided to quit of his own volition, if his own statement is anything to go by.

“When I joined the company in July 2013, Mark and I shared a vision of building a meaningful company that redefines entertainment in an increasingly mobile world. I am proud of the progress we have made together. I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga’s unique strengths.

“As a company, Zynga is in a stronger position today to serve mobile consumers and take advantage of the unprecedented growth opportunity across our industry. I am excited about the company’s trajectory and wish the best for Mark, Zynga and NaturalMotion as I plan to return to Canada to pursue my next challenge.”

On the whole, it is probably for the best that Mattrick has decided to quit- in spite of the official statement, he was a destructive force at Zynga too, losing them a grand total of $287 million while at his tenure there. Although I am no fan of Zynga’s, the livelihood of a lot of people employed by it depends on the company’s health, so let’s hope that Pincus can turn the firm around somewhat.

Rumours have been rife in the past few months about Microsoft releasing a Kinect-less Xbox One for $399 and in the latest episode of Bonus Round, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter talked about how this will happen soon enough. The Kinect was apparently heavily favoured by Don Mattrick and now that he’s gone, it’s support isn’t what it used to be.

“Don isn’t there anymore. You have a new boss over the Xbox division, who has no skin in the Kinect game. Sure they’re gonna unbundle. Not in 2014. They will not change the SKU that dramatically in the first full year. It’s a 2015 event.

“Just the way they introduced the 4GB Xbox after a couple years, they’ll bring one out and it’ll be something that’ll look a little dumbed down. I think they’ll actually pick the core model and put a 2TB hard drive in it, and then the dumbed down one will have a 500GB hard drive, and it’ll have no Kinect, and it’ll be $400.

“The problem is that if by spring ’15 they cut the price to $400, Sony goes $349 for ours/Sony right now is in a position to stay ahead of them, and this is what happened with the PS2. PS2 kept taking share by cutting price. I think this is a price game. I think unbundling Kinect is the smartest way to get competitive right away.”

You can blame Mattrick for Kinect still being bundled though, as the executive thought “it was gonna change the world. He believed it a mechanism to cross sell Skype and to cross sell cable access and doing other things.” That changed when they just decided to build the same functions into SmartGlass, especially with the growing numbers of smartphones and tablets.

“I think the overlap of Xbox One households and smartphones and tablets households is probably a hundred percent. I think that Kinect has become almost irrelevant. I think the voice command is really cool, but you can use your tablet.”

For all of its bungling mistakes, Zynga – thanks to CEO Don Mattrick – may have struck gold this time. It recently acquired NaturalMotion for $527 million. NaturalMotion has a few interesting mobile games but their biggest asset is in the development of middleware like Morpheme and Euphoria.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Euphoria is responsible for powering all of Rockstar’s games, most notably Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV and V, Max Payne 3 and more. It was also used in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Tekken 5, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and other titles. But it’s Rockstar’s use which could bring in a hefty amount for Zynga given the success of its open world games.

Both middleware are optimized for next gen consoles and PC, so it’s not like it’s going to go out of style soon with the publisher/developer either. Whether Mattrick and Zynga make the best use of NaturalMotion’s mobile titles and employees is up for debate but no one can deny the genius of this move. What are your thoughts? Let us know below.

Microsoft’s Don Mattrick recently left the company in the spate of some very questionable decisions regarding the debut of the next generation Xbox console, Xbox One. Whereas controversy and speculation already surrounded his departure, now we have more fuel to add to the fire- namely, Mattrick had allegedly looked at purchasing Zynga, the troubled former gaming giant, while he was within Microsoft.

Apparently, he has had his eye on the social gaming corporation for at least three years, Bloomberg reports. During Zynga’s meteoric growth, he wanted to buy the corporation outright to have them develop games exclusively for the Xbox 360, but those talks eventually fell apart. Ultimately, Mattrick, who has a heritage of spearheading casual gaming, from doubling down on properties like The Sims while at EA to Microsoft’s foray into casual gaming with the Kinect while in charge of Xbox, seems to have ended up at a place that seems to be cut out for him- a gaming corporation with no pretensions about catering to the hardcore whatsoever.

It will be interesting to see if Mattrick can revive and turn around Zynga like he did with EA and Xbox.

“EA presents a different challenge from Zynga, with over 4x the revenue and significantly higher profitability, and we think that the company is largely on the right track already. We were surprised that Mr. Mattrick took the Zynga job. We believed that the larger company presented a more prestigious opportunity.

“Now that Mr. Mattrick has taken the job at Zynga, EA is back to square one in its search. We believe that the company will find few qualified candidates outside the company, and will ultimately choose between the top two internal candidates, COO Peter Moore and EVP Frank Gibeau. Both men are capable of running EA, in our opinion, and investors would respond favorably to either being appointed.”

As for how Mattrick will fit in at Zynga, Pachter stated that, “Mr. Mattrick has the skills and experience required to manage a large organization, and we believe he will right-size Zynga staffing levels in order to allow the company to become profitable almost immediately.”

“I’m really proud to partner with a product focused founder like Mark and work with the executive team to grow the DNA of the company and lead this transition.” He also believes that Zynga has “redefined entertainment and brought gaming to the mainstream.”

“Only Zynga combines engineering, industry-leading product management and analytics to deliver products that strike a chord with consumers and add real value in their lives. More than 1 billion people have installed a Zynga game across web and mobile and popular franchises like FarmVille and Words With Friends are a daily habit for millions of people. It’s a staggering milestone that speaks to the mass market opportunity ahead of all of us.

“I’ve seen firsthand how powerful franchises and networks can work together to deliver breakthrough value for consumers and drive sustainable growth. We too, have all the makings of a successful service and business and we have the opportunity to create lifelong relationships with our customers through our high quality products.”

Microsoft has revealed that Steve Ballmer will now take over the Xbox business after Don’s recent departure from Microsoft. Don Mattrick is appointed as the new CEO for Zynga and the contract will come in-effect on July 8th 2013. Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn’t have someone to replace Don Mattrick, so the firm has decided to put Steve Ballmer in-charge. It is currently unknown if Steve Ballmer is a temporary replacement for Don Mattrick or if Microsoft is actually looking for someone else at this moment.

Here is the full statement from Steve Ballmer’s email regarding Don Mattrick joining up with Zynga – Thanks to CVG for the source.

“Zynga announced today that Don Mattrick would be its new CEO, effective July 8. This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. Don’s directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday.

“Since joining IEB more than six years ago, Don and his team have accomplished much. Xbox Live members grew from 6 million to 48 million. Xbox 360 became the No. 1 selling console in North America the past two years. We introduced Kinect and have sold more than 24 million sensors. We released fantastic games, and, most importantly, we expanded Xbox to go beyond great gaming to deliver all the entertainment people want – sports, music, movies, live television and much more.

“In the past month, the IEB team showed for the first time here on our Redmond campus, and again at E3, how we are going to continue to transform entertainment with Xbox One. I am incredibly proud of the work and vision culminating in Xbox One.

“I’m particularly excited about how Xbox pushes forward our devices and services transformation by bringing together the best of Microsoft. The consoles are incredible all-in-one devices with built-in services that consumers love, including Bing, Xbox Live, Internet Explorer, SkyDrive and Skype. And, just as important, Xbox Games, Xbox Video, Xbox Music and SmartGlass light up Windows PCs, tablets and phones.

“Thank you, Don, for setting us on a path to completely redefine the entertainment industry. The strong leadership team at IEB and their teams are well positioned to deliver the next-generation entertainment console, as well as transformative entertainment experiences, long into the future.”

To some people this may be a surprising piece of news, especially for me personally. I did not expect Steve Ballmer to overtake Xbox Business. I am not to pleased with his performances and his speeches during previous Microsoft conferences.Is this good for the Xbox One, and will it affect the launch of Microsoft’s new hardware in any sort of positive or negative way? I guess we’re going have to wait to find out.

Sound off in the comments below and tell us what you think about this.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt as this story develops.

Where will he be heading? The report states that Mattrick could be heading to Zynga to take up a position as its new CEO. The current CEO is company founder Mark Pincus. Given all the bad news that Zynga has been seeing, including departures of senior executives, declining revenues and the closure of several of its Facebook games, it’s not exactly a bad idea that Zynga gets some one of this level to take over.

Zynga declined to comment on the report, and Microsoft hasn’t confirmed it. Regardless, we could know as soon as today what the verdict is.

He then continued that, “We’re over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get. Any modern product these days you look at it [and] $499 isn’t a ridiculous price point. We’re delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they’re going to love it when they use it.”

Mattrick also believes that consumers will go for the Xbox One due to features like Skype, Kinect, SmartGlass and more. “We’re really making the living room your center of fun for your family.” Like Major Nelson, Mattrick is ignoring that pre-orders for the PlayStation 4 are outstripping supply, and that Sony itself has to adjust its initial forecasts.

The Xbox One is due to release in November with the PlayStation 4 releasing in the Holiday season.