Don Mattrick Is Officially Leaving Microsoft To Become The CEO Of Zynga

The president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick, is officially leaving the company for the CEO position of PC software company Zynga. He will also be a part of Zynga’s Board of Directors, with both positions being put into motion on July 8.

The founder of Zynga Mark Pincus said this about the move:

“Don is unique in the game business, he can execute in multiple domains — hardware, software, and network.”

Mattrick had this to say about deciding to leave Microsoft behind and go to Zynga:

“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. I’m proud to partner with Mark to deliver high-quality, fun, social games wherever people want to play.”

Though it is a bit surprising that he would leave Microsoft after just putting everyone’s minds at ease over Xbox One‘s many restrictive issues, I think that same 180 that he had to perform factored in big time in his decision to leave. His vision was squashed with Microsoft, and now with Zynga he has a chance to do what he originally intended. He has been eyeing this position for a while, apparently, but perhaps the recent fiasco was the straw that broke the camels back… or something.

But… ya know… whatever. Good luck to ya Don, though hopefully whatever you do with Zynga doesn’t freak the hell out of people all over again.