In Major Hire, Zynga Confirms Xbox Head Don Mattrick as New CEO, Taking Over From Mark Pincus 
 
 As AllThingsD reported earlier today, Zynga confirmed that it has hired Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick as its new CEO. 
 
 In a press release, the San Francisco online social gaming company — which has had a turbulent record since its late 2011 IPO — said that current CEO and founder Mark Pincus will continue as Zynga’s chairman and chief product officer. 
 
 The 49-year-old Mattrick, who begins next Monday, will also join the company’s board. 
 
 The hire is significant for Zynga, which has been hit by a series of problems since its IPO. Pincus has been struggling to move the company into mobile quickly, as its once strong Web and Facebook consumer business has waned. That has included a recent round of layoffs, as well as closures of a number of offices outside of its San Francisco HQ. 
 
 This is a major step by Pincus, who has held the top job there since the company’s founding. While it is not unusual for a founder to give up such power, it certainly underscores Pincus’ commitment to reviving Zynga. 
 
 In a blog post about the move, Pincus wrote, “if I could find someone who could do a better job as our CEO I’d do all I could to recruit and bring that person in. I’m confident that Don is that leader.” 
 
 Pincus’s cooperation was indeed key in the hiring, said sources. It would have to be: He has 61 percent voting control in Zynga, which he founded in 2007. Sources added that Pincus has lately come to the conclusion that the company needed a top manager as CEO, so that he could focus on creating hit games and other products. 
 
 Pincus had only half-heartedly tried that before, hiring Electronic Arts exec John Schappert as COO. But he, as well as a number of top execs, stepped down last summer. Pincus has tried a reorg of the company, but the Mattrick hiring is his most dramatic move to date and one that was also pushed by Zynga’s board. 
 
 “Don is unique in the game business,” said Pincus in a statement. “He deeply understands the value of a network and the importance of creating lifelong consumer relationships.” 
 
 Said Mattrick: “I joined Zynga because I believe that Mark’s pioneering vision and mission to connect the world through games is just getting started. Zynga is a great business that has yet to realize its full potential.” 
 
 Mattrick has been at Microsoft for a half-dozen years, after working for 15 year at Electronic Arts, including as president of its worldwide studios. He came to EA after it bought Distinctive Software, which Mattrick founded at 17 years old. 
 
 According to his company bio, “since Mattrick began overseeing the Xbox division, the Xbox 360 installed base grew from 10 million to nearly 80 million worldwide while Xbox Live membership increased from 6 million to nearly 50 million.” 
 
 But numerous sources said Mattrick has been looking to leave Microsoft for some time, a desire that has deepened as CEO Steve Ballmer has been contemplating a major restructuring that could separate software from hardware across all its businesses. In some configurations, that would have put Mattrick at a disadvantage. 
 
 Mattrick has also been on the short list of the top execs being considered to run EA, another gaming giant that has faced a number of challenges and whose former CEO was ousted a few months ago. According to sources, the company is still looking at many candidates and some of its own board members are interested in the job. 
 
 Microsoft does not currently appear to have a successor to Mattrick as yet, but that might be moot until Ballmer’s new reorg of the Redmond, Wash., tech giant is complete. 
 
 Despite the success of Xbox, Mattrick has presided over some recent high-profile missteps around the flagship device. 
 
 As the interactive entertainment boss, Mattrick has been a public presence at both of Microsoft’s recent Xbox One events — the nationally televised unveiling in May and the E3 update in June. Gamers disappointed with the lesser focus on games at the May event blasted execs like Mattrick in numerous online grumblings (and worse over other issues — Francis is really pissed! So is this guy, who is quite verbal about it, too.) 
 
 At E3, Sony won the image battle by reaffirming its old DRM policies vs. the Xbox’s new ones, which had angered some gamers by requiring regular online connectivity. After E3, Microsoft abandoned its new digital check-in plans and reverted back to its old DRM policies, too. 
 
 While some of the more vocal gamers are now pointing to these issues as part of the reasons for Mattrick’s departure, it does not appear to be the case. 
 
 Zynga shares rose about nine percent today, after ATD posted on the Mattrick hire. ||||| Photo 
 
 Zynga, the social games maker that has stumbled badly over the last year, said it had replaced its founder and chief executive, Mark Pincus, with the head of Microsoft’s Xbox video game business, Don Mattrick. 
 
 The change, announced Monday afternoon, came after a series of miscalculations and poor management decisions by Mr. Pincus threatened to transform Zynga from one of the hottest game start-ups ever into one of its most spectacular flameouts. After Mr. Pincus figured out before anyone else how games like FarmVille could get friends playing against one another on Facebook, he seemed unable to repeat the formula on today’s popular game devices, smartphones and tablets. 
 
 Zynga’s stock is down nearly 70 percent since it sold shares to the public in late 2011. Last month it laid off nearly a fifth of its work force. 
 
 In hiring Mr. Mattrick, Zynga is following a familiar rite of passage at young technology companies, which often look to seasoned managers to aid their transition from start-ups run by creative, headstrong founders into bigger enterprises. Google, for instance, brought in Eric Schmidt as chief executive to help manage the company with its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 
 
 Some founders of troubled Internet companies have not been able to hang on, including Andrew Mason, the former chief executive of Groupon, who was fired from the coupon service in February after his missteps put him on the wrong side of its board of directors. 
 
 Mr. Pincus, who will remain at Zynga as chairman and chief product officer, worked hard on Monday to portray himself as a strong supporter of hiring Mr. Mattrick. In a message to Zynga employees, Mr. Pincus said he had long told Zynga’s board, including Bing Gordon, a stalwart of the games business and friend of Mr. Mattrick’s, that “if I could find someone who could do a better job as our C.E.O. I’d do all I could to recruit and bring that person in.” 
 
 “I’m confident that Don is that leader,” Mr. Pincus wrote. For good measure, Mr. Pincus concluded a Twitter post on Mr. Mattrick’s hiring with the hashtag: #internettreasure. 
 
 In Mr. Mattrick, Zynga has found a rare combination of impeccable creative credentials in the games business and strong business acumen. A programmer from Vancouver, British Columbia, who dropped out of college to create games, Mr. Mattrick founded a games start-up at the age of 17. He sold the start-up for $11 million to Electronic Arts in 1991, where it became a factory for some of EA’s biggest games hits, including the car racing game Need for Speed. 
 
 He is a hard-core gamer himself, though a busy one. He once confirmed to a reporter that he hired a college student to play the online fantasy game World of Warcraft using Mr. Mattrick’s account so he could more swiftly improve the powers of his game character. 
 
 After 14 years at EA, Mr. Mattrick joined Microsoft in 2007 and helped that company expand the audience for its Xbox 360 game console. He oversaw the introduction of its Kinect motion-sensor, which made the game system more accessible to casual gamers. 
 
 Mr. Mattrick does not, however, have a strong background in mobile games, where Zynga needs the most help. There are plenty of megahits in mobile games, from Angry Birds to the addictive puzzle game currently at the top of download charts, Candy Crush. But that formula for mobile success has largely eluded Zynga and it isn’t readily clear Mr. Mattrick has the background to help the company solve that problem. 
 
 “I think the solution is mobile so I’m not sure Don is the guy,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “You need a hit. It’s fluky stuff.” 
 
 Zynga has also been hit with a string of departures by executives who, like Mr. Mattrick, used to work at Electronic Arts. The most prominent was John Schappert, Zynga’s former chief operating officer. 
 
 The timing of Mr. Mattrick’s departure was particularly bad for Microsoft, which plans to release a new game console, the Xbox One, in time for the holiday shopping season. Mr. Mattrick, the president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business, has had a rocky few weeks since the unusual public outcry that followed the revelation last month of many important details about Xbox One at the E3 game conference. 
 
 Gamers denounced Microsoft’s plan to let game publishers prevent the resale of Xbox One game discs in used-game stores, forcing the company to reverse its policy. Although the controversy looked like a setback for Mr. Mattrick, his departure did not appear to be directly related to it, according to one person. 
 
 All Things Digital first reported news of Mr. Mattrick’s hiring by Zynga. 
 
 Mr. Mattrick, 49, was also talking to Electronic Arts about becoming chief executive of that company, said people briefed on the discussion who declined to be named because the discussions were private. While Zynga is struggling to find mobile hits, there is little danger of it going out of business in the near term. The company has a sizable store of cash from its initial public offering, with more than $1 billion in cash and marketable securities. 
 
 It remains to be seen whether Mr. Pincus, who still holds 61 percent of the voting power in the company through his Zynga shares, will give Mr. Mattrick the freedom to run the company the way he wants. Zynga said that Mr. Mattrick will join Mr. Pincus on a newly formed executive committee to manage the company’s affairs between board meetings. 
 
 One person close to Zynga who declined to be named said that Mr. Pincus was serious about letting Mr. Mattrick run the company and that Mr. Mattrick would not have accepted the job if he thought Mr. Pincus was likely to meddle. 
 
 John Doerr, the venture capitalist and Zynga board member, said in a statement that the change would allow Mr. Pincus to focus more on products. “This also is a win for Mark, who can devote his full attention to conceiving and building the best social games in the world,” Mr. Doerr said.
– After a disastrous year and a major round of layoffs, Zynga has decided its founding CEO is no longer the person for the job. The social gaming firm behind titles such as FarmVille has chosen Don Mattrick, the current chief of Microsoft's Xbox division, to replace Mark Pincus at the helm, All Things Digital reports. "Don is unique in the game business," Pincus, who will remain as chairman, said in a statement. "He can execute in multiple domains—hardware, software, and network." Mattrick, a hardcore gamer with a solid business record, will be tasked with turning the company around, though some analysts say his lack of experience in mobile gaming could be a problem, the New York Times notes.