14 DAY TRIAL // Two analysts believe that despite his extensive leadership experience, even Don Mattrick might struggle to turn around the fortunes of his new employer, Zynga, which faces multiple problems in spite of its great success in the social space.
Billy Pidgeon, an independent analyst, tells GamesIndustry.biz that, “Having Don Mattrick replace Mark Pincus will be good for Zynga in the short term. Don's talent, experience and connections would make a huge difference at most game companies, and hopefully he can help transform Zynga.”
At the same time, the company has big problems, including a public fallout with Facebook and a failure to create hits for the rapidly growing mobile space, and Mattrick has little experience working in these markets.
Colin Sebastian, who watches the industry for RW Baird, adds, “Overall, we view the appointment of Microsoft executive Don Mattrick as the new CEO of Zynga as a positive development for the company, given his industry and street credibility and experience building platforms and networks.”
He believes that the working relationship between the former Microsoft leader and Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, might be risky.
Apparently, Don Mattrick was also one of the candidates for the open chief executive position at publisher Electronic Arts.
Colin Sebastian also believes that leader credibility cannot be a substitute for good video games, which Zynga needs to launch on social networks and mobiles in order to regain market share.
Don Mattrick has supervised the development and the launch of the new Xbox One home console from Microsoft.
It’s unclear whether his decision to leave the company was linked to the DRM debate that surfaced earlier in the year and to the surprising turnaround that has seen all DRM for the next-gen device eliminated.
Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer at Microsoft, has praised Mattrick for the work he has done on the Xbox One.