Zynga’s stocks has risen as much as 12.7 percent after news of change in leadership at the online games company broke out.

A report from AllThingsD stated that Zynga has succesfully tapped up Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment unit, which is responsible for the Xbox and all of the company’s gaming and entertaining efforts. As of today, he will now serve as the Zynga’s CEO and will work closely with former CEO Mark Pincus.

Soon after rumors broke out, Zynga made an official announcement, formally naming Mattrick as CEO of Zynga and a member of the company’s Board.  As for Pincus, he’s not completely out of the company, instead assuming a new role as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Product Officer of the Company.

“Don is unique in the game business,” said Pincus.

“He can execute in multiple domains – hardware, software and network, and he’s been the person responsible for game franchises like ‘Need for Speed,’ ‘FIFA’ and ‘The Sims.’ He’s one of the top executives in the overall entertainment business and he’s a great coach who has inspired people to do their best work and build strong, productive teams. He deeply understands the value of a network and the importance of creating lifelong consumer relationships. He turned Xbox into the world’s largest console-gaming network, growing its installed base from 10 to 80 million and transformed that business from deep losses to substantial profits. And he has grown the Xbox Live player network from 6 to 50 million active members in 41 countries. Going forward, I’ll continue in my role as Chairman and Chief Product Officer. I’m excited to partner with Don and the rest of our team to return Zynga to its leadership role in inventing and growing Play as a core human experience.”

Pincus’ Reign of Terror

Many were doubtful that Pincus would ever give up his position as Zynga’s CEO, but it’s not an unlikely move considering that the company is trading well below its IPO price.

Pincus has been described as having a“‘fearsome’ management style, as possessing a ‘control freak’ personality, with a willingness to “pull out every scammy trick in the book to sell FarmVille, CityVille, and other time-waster games to bored Facebook users.”

Few would deny Pincus has got one hell of a ruthless streak in him. He was caught on tape saying he had done “every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away.” This includes such things as making social gamers download difficult-to-remove apps to obtain free game credits, forcing employees to return zynga stocks or else they will be fired (something he later tried to amend by giving the stocks back, albeit only to a minute number of employees), bullied public officials over taxes, created a class of super-shares just for himself. In all fairness, it’s fair to say Pincus is widely known for being a bit of a tool.

The worst part is, he seemed too engulfed in his own power trip to notice that he was driving his business down the sewers.  Not only were Zynga’s stocks 70 percent (it’s down to 68 percent after the executive shakeup made news) below its IPO price, but the company was forced to lay off 18 percent of its workforce just last month.

If that doesn’t prove how bad Pincus is at leading a company, then we don’t know what would.

So is a change in leader needed?  Definitely.  Will Mattrick be the person to help Zynga return to its full glory?  Plausible.  That Pincus has given up his seat as CEO means that maybe he’s not such a tool after all, but he’s still Chairman of the Board and he can still continue his reign of terror if he so wishes

Why Don Mattrick?

Mattrick has a long history in the gaming scene.  He started out at Distinctive Software, a company he founded when aged just 17. Distinctive Software went on to be acquired by games giant EA, where he served as head of its global studios and research and development. He left EA to join Microsoft in 2007, where his bio stated that, “since Mattrick began overseeing the Xbox division, the Xbox 360’s installed base grew from 10 million to nearly 80 million worldwide while Xbox Live membership increased from 6 million to nearly 50 million.”

Here’s what Mattrick had to say upon accepting his new role at Zynga:

“In its short history, Zynga has redefined entertainment and brought social gaming to the mainstream. More than 1 billion people across web and mobile have installed Zynga games, and franchises like FarmVille and Words With Friends have become a part of people’s daily lives.”

“I joined Zynga because I believe that Mark’s pioneering vision and mission to connect the world through games is just getting started. Zynga is a great business that has yet to realize its full potential. I’m proud to partner with Mark to deliver high-quality, fun, social games wherever people want to play.”

Based on his bio at Microsoft, Mattrick certainly seems capable of turning things around at Zynga. But then again, he could easily make things worse by introducing a new ‘reign of terror’ at Zynga, if his recent unpopular decisions (later reversed) at Xbox One are anything to go by.

Cynical Reactions to Mattrick’s Appointment:

While we at SiliconANGLE prefer to be a little more optimistic about Zynga’s prospects under Mattrick, the rest of the tech community is evidently less forgiving. Here’s a small selection of some of the more amusing reactions to today’s news we’ve come across:

Whoa. Don Mattrick leaving Xbox to work for Zynga. How’t the saying go? “Out of the frying pan, into the… flaming garbage toilet?” – @MaxScoville

Don Mattrick leaving MS makes me wonder if he was fired or sabotaged MS before he left. – @IncrediBurch

I want to be on Don Mattrick’s level of drunk. – @sofiesheik

Poor little don mattrick went from Xbox to Farmville LMFAO – @NemohhTv

But by far and away the funniest comment came from Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai, who obviously just couldn’t help himself when he made the following tongue-in-cheek tweet:

Don Mattrick to join Zynga. Farmville users will now have to connect to their game every 24 hours or their animals will be killed – @KazHiraiCEO

So everyone seems to think Zynga’s screwed, but we’ll have to wait and see on that score. of course, the other big question that remains to be answered is what will happen to the Xbox now that Mattrick is gone?