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Former Xbox boss Don Mattrick steps down as Zynga CEO

Zynga has announced CEO Don Mattrick, for Xbox boss at Microsoft, is leaving the company and will no longer maintain a position on the company's board of directors.

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Mattrick joined Zynga as its new CEO in July 2013 after a six year stint at Microsoft.

Zynga's founder and former CEO Mark Pincus will once again take over as CEO which is in the process of transitioning to the mobile space.

"I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga’s unique strengths," Mattrick said in a statement provided to Gamasutra by Zynga.

Pincus told Re/Code he, the board and Mattrick "came to this [decision] together and it was super amicable."

He continued: "but it’s been two years and we are still not winning as a company on the level we had hoped and think we can be. We need to move fast and we need to act a little bit more as a startup, by focusing more on entrepreneuring and speed than on structure and management.”

Mattrick's CEO package at Zynga was a rather large one, worth $19.3 million for his first year and $50 million over three years.

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Stephany Nunneley-Jackson

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Stephany is VG247’s News Editor, with 22 years experience (with 15 of them at VG247). With a brain that lacks adhesive ducks, the ill-tempered, chaotic neutral fembot does her best to bring you the most interesting gaming news. She is also unofficially the site’s Lord of the Rings/Elder Scrolls Editor.

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