Don Mattrick Leaves Microsoft To Become CEO At Zynga 100
krkhan writes "It has been confirmed by Zynga that the head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, is taking over as the new CEO. Mattrick joined Microsoft in 2007 and has led the business during much of the lifespan of Xbox 360, as well as the launch of Kinect and pre-launch of Xbox One. Zynga shares jumped 12% following the news."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
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no use for Dot Matrix (Score:2, Interesting)
or as I read it, after the XBONE always on drm marketing debacle, some one got fired.
only if people at MS got fired for making a bad product and not just marketing debacles... I am looking at you b-lamer
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why should Microsoft start firing non marketing people for technical failures
Because marketing people should know how to open their mouths without inserting their feet in them? Don Mattrick has had one PR flub after another for months. The guy seems incapable of typing or speaking a single sentence that doesn't make him and MS come off like insensitive, officious, clueless pricks. Not exactly the guy you want to be the public face of your new product (or any product, for that matter).
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It's kind of difficult to do that when the executives tell you that the point of the new product is to take a huge dump on the customer base and your job is to make sure they like it that way.
Yeah, except that Don Mattrick *WAS* that executive. He was the head of the Xbox division, not some low-level PR flunky. The only one he took orders from was Steve Ballmer. The decision to dump on the Xbox consumer base was all his.
Re:From pits of sewage (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, MS will continue to stay afloat a lot longer thanks to legacy contracts and ingrained habits. But in 15 years, they'll be lucky to be another Yahoo (who will be long dead, along with Zynga).
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Windows, all versions combined, is still --by far-- the dominant OS on desktops.
Unless something dramatic happen, it ain't going away any time soon.
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Like the desktop market shrinking drastically. Being the King of the Mountain doesn't mean much if the mountain is a molehill. I'm sure MS will continue to suck the blood out of corporate infrastructure though just because of their server/cloud thing and MBAs being completely lost without PP slides to tell them what they think.
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Do you consider it likely that mobile devices will replace desktops and laptops sufficiently to threaten Windows domination?
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I love coming to Slashdot to hear about why MSFT is doomed each day. I've been hearing it for years yet annoyingly, the MSFT share prices just won't tank. What a shame! I wonder if investors know something the anti-MS crowd on /. don't....hmm...
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nah.
this is just pre-acquisition movement, the same as nokia and every company that MS has ever done a big deal with. It'll be a few years.
Re:Being run by an ex-Microsoft manager... (Score:5, Funny)
... worked so well for Nokia ... Not!
On the plus side, this is Zynga we are talking about. In a pleasant inversion of AvP, "Whoever Loses, We Win."
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Maybe he'll actually be able to raise the standards of ethics and customer relations at Zynga. After all, starting so much closer to their level than the average executive will make it easier for the business culture there to relate to him.
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Maybe he'll actually be able to raise the standards of ethics and customer relations at Zynga. After all, starting so much closer to their level than the average executive will make it easier for the business culture there to relate to him.
I'd settle for just finding that lost pony's home.
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not for Nokia but that tactic has worked well for Microsoft. Is there something at Zynga Microsoft really needs so much that they orchestrate a planting to get it?
stupid browser games that will soon be metro apps?
All the xbox employees now report to Ballmer (Score:5, Interesting)
Ballmer issued a statement which included a comment that all Don's former employees now report to Ballmer through the holiday for the XBOX ONE.. Hm...
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jul13/07-01steveb-mail.aspx [microsoft.com]
Re:All the xbox employees now report to Ballmer (Score:4, Interesting)
No hmm about it. It's a very good farewell message - no daggers.
All it means is that they didn't have anyone to back-fill Don (which would indicate a resignation rather than being fired).
Re:All the xbox employees now report to Ballmer (Score:5, Interesting)
The question isn't about daggers, but about the efficacy of Ballmer picking up from here through to and after the launch. With Don's departure so swift, it strikes me a little like losing your head coach just before going to your championship game. It brings uncertainty and interrupts a certain flow and expectation at a crucial moment. I'm actually a bit shocked they wouldn't force him to stay til the end of the year (if for no other reason than to readily finger him for any failures in final numbers).
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More likely that Balmer kicked Mattrick's ass out the door (with a chair thrown after him for good measure), then took personal command of the sinking ship in an effort to right it. Whether Ballmer himself is the right man for the job is debatable, but he could hardly do much worse.
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Well, Ballmer is very good at "launching" things, so maybe it will help.
XBone One (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this guy saw the writing on the wall regarding the XBone One, and he got the hell out of dodge before the shit storm made landfall. Better to go to a place where you're wanted while you can still leave than be sucking on a "golden parachute" and have no job prospects.
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You do realize that you're basically saying Xbox One One, right?
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11b = 3
Now the name actually makes sense.
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I thought he was saying X-Bone One, as in, "Microsoft really X-Boned this one."
Re:XBone One (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, there will be a shitstorm. Microsoft really screwed up this launch and I think that's why he's leaving. After the DRM reversal, his number was up.
But I don't think for a moment that Microsoft is out of the console race. They're in it for the long game and as far as launches go, I still think the PS3 holds the title of the worst console launch.
I imagine in 2015 after the inevitable price drop, no one will even remember all the Microsoft cockups, but it's going to be a lot of painful months before Microsoft gets there.
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They're in it for the long game and as far as launches go, I still think the PS3 holds the title of the worst console launch.
I doubt that.
Sony's crime was mind-boggling arrogance, the belief that because they had so thouroughly dominated with the PS2 that they could do whatever the fuck they wanted and game developers and gamers would lap up their crap no matter how dumb it was. The central locus was the Cell processor, an exotic piece of hardware which is a bastard to program for and can't receive code that isn't specifically tuned for it without suffering nasty performance problems. Sony's thinking was that developers would wri
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Err, you are kind of supporting the argument that the PS3 launch was the worst console launch ever.
In order to say that Sony learned their lesson, I would wait until they are in a dominant position again and pull out that act of humility. They all are for-profit companies, so the only good thing that comes out from there is when you have a real competitor that will take your business away if you don't get your act together. One of the reasons why open source works better for not screwing users up, even if i
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Err, you are kind of supporting the argument that the PS3 launch was the worst console launch ever.
His point, I think, is that the Xbone launch was even worse because MS had the opportunity to learn from Sony's previous mistakes, and instead went on to make the very same mistakes. Sony's strategy was risky, but conceivably could have paid off. MS had every reason why they should have known better, but they went ahead anyway.
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Microsoft really screwed up this launch
Why are you using the past tense for something that hasn't happened yet?
Businesses regularly say 'we are going to do XXX' just to see how the public reacts. Microsoft is notorious for inventing entire software products, marketing campaigns and release dates ... and never writing a single line of code. The (and many many others, mine included) do it to test reception for a potential product so it can be canceled earlier if its an unsure idea or as misdirection towards competition.
Saying one thing initially
Shitstorm already here (Score:1)
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Yeah, and you don't want that launch clouded by having the prick who told the military and hardcore fans to go screw themselves still at the helm. He had to go.
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Oh come on now. And instead he went to the complete trainwreck of a spam house?
No way he was leaving on his own. Not with product launch in 5 months.
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It's nothing to do with the "writing on the wall", he got pushed, period.
This is the guy who basically told his customers to go f themselves and insulted just about every serving member of the US military whilst also claiming removing DRM from the XBox One was impossible, only for the company to do exactly that literally only a few days later.
It's pretty obvious this guy fucked up, and was given his notice. Had he not got this job at Zynga I'd wager in a few more weeks time he'd have "decided to leave Micro
An Odd One (Score:2)
Usually the rats are just stowaways who flee if the ship sinks, but Rattrick was the one who sunk the XBONE ship and now he's fleeing to another sinking ship.
Oh well, good riddance. Hope he fails at Zynga, too.
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There's been a lot of rumors in the biz press that Ballmer will announce some big changes at MS.
As for exactly WHY he left only he knows. But if I were offered a CEO position, I'd jump on it regardless of what my current circumstance or future was at my current company.
Everyone knows why he left. He royally fucked up the Xbox One and was shitcanned for it.
Focus on TV TV TV TV during the reveal
Forced Kinect that no one wants
Major DRM bullshit blocking used sales and rentals, requiring a check-in every 24 hours, etc.
$100 more than the competition
Underpowered compared to the competition
Then came the embarrassing reversal of the major DRM bullshit. Good for gamers, bad for MS because of the PR fiasco and the existing deals they had with the 3 anuses of Satan (EA, Activision
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He and Zynga are a perfect match. No one would give a shit if either failed.
Did Zinga look at Nokia? (Score:3)
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Based on the last couple quarters, Zynga's already on life support. Their fate isn't sealed yet but the magic eightball says "outlook not so good".
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I think its partially because you really don't need results to win at microsoft. Microsoft makes products people more or less have to buy(i.e. pre-installed, or needed for compatibility), instead of want to buy. There is virtually no risk/reward for making a flop.
With the exception of the XBox, every product where microsoft had to c
Holy crap... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Holy crap... (Score:4)
I'm not so sure. He used to be a (higher-up) middle manager, now he's the CEO. If an already crumbling ship sinks, nobody will blame him, and the next job he'll be given will be a CEO position.
Remember, CEOs aren't rated by the performance of their company under their leadership, but only by the check they raked in every month.
Re:Holy crap... (Score:5, Informative)
Think Simpler. (Score:2)
Maybe he just got tired of ducking chairs then...
*ducks*
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That's not the issue. Sinking ships go through captains faster than a mexican restaurant through toilet paper rolls.
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Well, he was president. Though, you're right that since he reported to the CEO, there's no way for him to advance to CEO job. And once you land in the coveted CEO spot, you're really in a little club - make your mark you're pretty much going to always be CEO.
"President" is a lower executive title - you can be a presi
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Or you know that Mattrick was desperate because he'd been given his notice period after the colossal XBox One DRM screwup which he was defiant in defending and the subsequent reversal.
I know which I'm placing my bets on.
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I don't fucking want innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.
- CEO Mark Pincus
Yep. Don Mattrick will fit right in!
Zynga shares jumped 12%? (Score:3)
Does no one remember Nokia?
Their new strategy will be to strike a deal with M$ and then develop solely for the Windows Phone because everything else is a waste of time.
Re:Time to really dump Zynga shares (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah that guy is very unlucky!
Re:Time to really dump Zynga shares (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy went from EA to MS to now Zynga. Notice a trend?
EA: Hemorrhaging money, dominant market share, in decline
MS: Record profits, dominant market share, in decline
Zynga: Hemorrhaging money, large share of market with no customer loyalty, in decline
I'm going to go with "in decline"
From Fame to Shame ... (Score:2)
Nice analysis of the pattern!
Sucks to see Don Mattrick go from such Fame to Shame.
i.e.
"Prior to joining Microsoft in 2007, Mattrick served as the President of Worldwide Studios for Electronic Arts, where he worked for 25 years. At the age of 17, Mattrick founded Distinctive Software, Inc. which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991 and subsequently became EA Canada."
Anybody is better than... (Score:1)
There goes Zynnga (Score:2)
Nice knowing you!
I hope he is renumerated in Zynga points (Score:3)
I bet... (Score:3)
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Zynga won't be bought by Microsoft – why would they bother? Instead, Mattrick will make their suite of games Metro-only. Microsoft gets all the advantages of a buyout, without having to pay any cash. Zynga will lose money and market share, but MS doesn't care, and Mattrick will no doubt have a golden parachute and probably some juicy kickbacks on top of that.
This is what happens when you hire an ex-Microsoft executive. Their loyalty stays with the old company, and you will soon be little more than a c
Is this some kind of tech celebrity worship? (Score:1)
I'm still wondering why everyday tech people should care what companies these overpaid pricks are jumping to to further their careers? Slashdot posts a lot of such stories.