The DeanBeat: What the game industry learned from Mark Pincus

This week saw a changing of the guard at Zynga, as founder Mark Pincus gave up his operating role while his successor, Don Mattrick, consolidated his control of the social gaming giant. The change was a big milestone for Pincus, who didn’t have to make such a move. But it was probably the right thing to do, and it is part of the natural order of things in gaming, where change is constant.

Pincus is a veteran entrepreneur who had been thrown out of past companies. He was one of those rare serial founders who held on to voting control of his company even after it went public. But the company’s results were so marred by the failed transition to casual mobile games that he brought in Mattrick, a veteran of hardcore game companies such as Microsoft Xbox and Electronic Arts, to right the ship. Things have been improving, and with the latest positive quarterly report, Pincus surrendered his chief product officer title and became a non-executive chairman. Mattrick brought in his own crew.