Director leaves game company Zynga

Director Don Mattrick is leaving Zynga immediately. Founder Mark Pincus succeeds him as CEO. Mattrick started less than two years ago as the chief executive of Zynga, the game maker that mainly focuses on ‘social’ games.

The outgoing director tells Gamesindustry that he thinks he will leave the company stronger than when he found it and that the mobile game branch is now in better shape. Mattrick returns to Canada to focus on his “next challenge.” On the company’s blog, returning CEO Pincus says Mattrick was indeed instrumental in developing mobile games.

Mattrick came from Microsoft Xbox to Zynga in July 2013. The news didn’t come as a surprise to investors, says an analyst at Gamesindustry. Mattrick had to change course, but that didn’t happen and he was also quite expensive. Investors don’t like that, according to the analyst. It was also not good for Pincus to take over, because Zynga’s share price fell by ten percent. All details regarding the departure are in the so-called sec-filing, which is mandatory in the United States for listed companies.