Alex Garden, former head of Zynga Studios.
Categories

Zynga’s head of game studios quietly left before CEO change from Mattrick to Pincus

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Zynga confirmed today that Alex Garden, the head of Zynga Studios, departed from the company in March.

The social and mobile gaming company didn’t announce the departure at the time. But it did publicly announce Garden’s arrival when he joined about a year ago, just as then-CEO Don Mattrick assumed full control of Zynga’s day-to-day operations and founder Mark Pincus stepped back. We just heard about Garden’s departure after Mattrick resigned yesterday and Pincus moved in again as CEO. All these moves take place in an environment in which Zynga continues to find its footing in mobile gaming, a market that could hit $30 billion this year.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X!
Join now to enjoy our free and premium membership perks.
Join Now
Already a member? Sign in
Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.