al gaming giants Zynga have announced a shake up at the top of their business with founder Mark Pincus stepping down as CEO and handing over the reins to former Microsoft chief Don Mattrick.

Pincus founded Zynga in 2007 and will stay on as chairman and chief product officer, with 49-year-old Mattrick, who has been at Microsoft for six years as president of entertainment business, coming in on 9 July.

Pincus said of his successor: “He turned Microsoft into the world’s largest console-gaming network, growing its installed base from 10 million to 80 million and transformed that business from deep losses to substantial profits, and he has grown the Xbox Live network from 6 million to 50 million users in 41 countries. He’s one of the top executives in business entertainment.”

It has been a troubling period for Zynga with the announcement of 520 job losses across the company last month, and the board change comes just a day after an Eilers Research report stating that the firm have been replaced by Caesars Interactive Entertainment as the No.1 publishers of social casino games.

Bruce Archer