Don Mattrick leaves Xbox

Apparently Don Mattrick has resigned as the head of the Xbox division for Microsoft. If you're reading this blog I'm sure you know about the issues going on over there in the past couple of months. Microsoft first announced their new system, the Xbox One, would have all kinds of restrictions in order to block used games and such. Don Mattrick, as the face of the Xbox division, had many chances to try and spin it to look good for consumers. Instead he kept sticking his foot in his mouth, saying things like, "People without internet can just stick to Xbox 360." I'm paraphrasing there, but that was the gist of what he said. And of course he and others from Microsoft went on to say that these restrictions couldn't easily be changed.

Shortly thereafter, the restrictions were changed.

Many people have been wondering if Mr. Mattrick would be keeping his job. As someone who keeps kind of close tabs on the game industry, I can say that Microsoft's image was definitely hurt by what happened. I've heard plenty of people say, even after the restrictions were done away with, that they had no interest in getting an Xbox One, specifically because they didn't trust Microsoft anymore. So it wouldn't have been a surprise to me to hear that Mattrick had been fired. Instead, he has resigned his position at Microsoft to become the new CEO of Zynga! If you're not familiar with Zynga, they're the company that makes Farmville and numerous other popular Facebook games.

So I have to wonder two things. One, did Mattrick leave Microsoft voluntarily? It's possible they might have wanted to get rid of him, but gave him the option to "resign" on his own to save face. I guess lucky for him Zynga was hiring if that was the case. And two, why would Zynga want this guy? Zynga already has kind of a bad reputation as being the maker of annoying Facebook games, and also has been accused of too-closely copying other games. Why would they want a guy who's proven himself to be less than stellar in the PR department like Don Mattrick? Only time will tell where this is all going to go. It may be interesting to see what Mattrick can do with Zynga.

In the meantime, Microsoft has yet to name Mattrick's replacement. Apparently for now all of Mattrick's former top men will be reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. I can't help but wonder if they'll bring someone in who will try to fix the damage done by the Xbox One restrictions. I'm not sure how they could do that, exactly, or even if I really want them to, but it'd definitely be interesting.

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