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When it comes to former Xbox leaders, we've often heard about what the likes of Seamus Blackley and Peter Moore are getting up to, but Don Mattrick, who led the brand during part of the Xbox 360 era and the start of the Xbox One era, tends to remain in the background these days.
That's probably because of how his tenure at Xbox ended — he was the figurehead for the disastrous Xbox One launch in 2013 — but nevertheless was part of propelling the Xbox 360 to success during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and has since gone on to rack up a series of high-profile job roles both in and (mostly) outside of the gaming industry.
His latest career move is a particularly major one, as he's stepping into the role of CEO at Photonic. This is a Quantum Computing company based in Vancouver that Mattrick has been involved with for many years now, originally on the board of directors, then as a vice chair, and now as Chief Executive Officer as of March 2026.
"Quantum computing is poised to accelerate drug discovery, enhance financial modelling, transform cryptography, optimize logistics, and enable breakthroughs in materials science and climate simulations. Photonic will be at the forefront of these transformative changes with the world’s first commercial-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer based on an innovative qubit modality built to scale. Photonic grew out of an ambitious vision—to engineer a scalable solution for quantum computing from the ground up."
As far as we can tell, this marks Mattrick's first CEO role since 2015. That role was for Zynga, which makes various mobile games including FarmVille, appointing Mattrick in 2013 after he left Xbox. He departed the company two years later, and has since pursued a career path outside of the gaming industry.
Mattrick rarely speaks about his time at Xbox, but he did make an appearance for the 20th anniversary of Xbox back in 2021, explaining the decisions that went into the Xbox One reveal. He suggested at the time that he ideally wanted to stay, noting his desire to "execute on the vision and the capabilities that the team had created".
We wish Don all the best, and hopefully we'll get to hear about his more positive Xbox memories someday! For a little blast from the past, here's a quick look at his reveal of the Xbox 360 S console in 2010:
Comments 26
Mattrick is reason Xbox is in position it's in today. All the good will and momentum just ruined in one E3 show.
@GuyinPA75 yes agreed. By the time of that E3 show I’d already sold my 360 for a ps3 to play all the amazing exclusives Sony had at the time. Also Xbox were running hard with Kinect which I wasn’t interested in.
I was open to them winning me back with the xbone launch but if anything it had the opposite effect and pushed me further away!
The guy that hurt Xbox, so badly, it never recovered...
How anyone would wanna hire this guy now, is a mystery.
@GuyinPA75 I think their momentum slowed quite a bit before that infamous E3. While they undoubtedly "won" the X360 generation overall, by the end of that gen Sony was already on a roll releasing a flurry of system selling games late on, whereas the Xbox 360 exclusive library was drying up by comparison.
It meant that going into next-gen (XBO / PS4) Sony had all the momentum even before the TV, TV, TV disaster. But it certainly didn't help.
It was similar with PS4 - > PS5. Sony seems to back load and front load their generations with a bit of a lull in the middle, which seems smart if it's actually planned that way. Whereas for 3 generations now Xbox has ended or started their gen slowly which has stalled their momentum each time and let Sony get ahead.
I hate that guy ruined Xbox with a big smile on his face!
I dont care what people say, the xbox one was sweet, even at launch. I was still paying for cable/sat TV at the time and I loved having everything in the xbox.
And it was a reliable console which was a huge improvement over the 360 disaster.
@BacklogBrad You are right it is a good machine but that E3 launch was very different to the actual Xbox one that was launched.
It was a disaster!
There was even playstation videos in that E3 making fun of it's game sharing feature.
And then tone deaf Don saying if you want to have an Xbox that plays games offline buy a 360!
What a smug condescending tosser!
Cool. Rich guy gonna stay rich. Good for him, I guess? 💅🏼
“Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of quantum computing, it's called xbox 360.”
Interestingly, the very thing for which he was so heavily criticized, the need to be constantly online, ended up becoming a widely accepted reality shortly thereafter.
Xbox One is probably one of the greatest examples of "data isn't everything." They saw where the future of entertainment was going, and leaned too hard into it and alienated their core customers. It's interesting that some of the tech and policies have been adopted by different companies.
Failing upward really is a thing, isn’t it…
Well he didnt work out for MS, hopefully he works out for this company. Wish him luck.
@datamonkey I enjoyed the Kinect for what it was. It was kinda cool being able call my gamer friends on it.
If that thing would released around covid, really think there been insane demand for Xbox One.
@themightyant I'd have a Playstation too if the controller was not so uncomfortable and crap layout.
Keep hoping a wireless Xbox style Playstation controller would release at reasonable price. Would buy that and Playstation for sure. There are some games on Playstation love to play.
Am I the only one who's kinda shocked at how much older he looks? Like, wow, it makes 𝘮𝘦 feel old
He always reminds me of Alan Partridge does Mattrick for some reason 😅
@themightyant PS3 outsold the 360 by the end. It was close but Sony did beat MS that gen.
I recently learned Mattrick was at EA in the 90s and his ***** corporate meddling was a big reason Ultima VIII sucked so much. What a f***ing disaster this guy has been for the video game industry. Phil Harrison has nothing on Don Mattrick.
@DennisReynolds while it’s true Sony beat Xbox in consoles sold in the X360 era, just, but by every other metric MS obliterated Sony that gen. Hell PS3 was such a financial disaster it almost bankrupted the whole company and the PlayStation division had to be bailed out. You’d have to do some proper mental gymnastics to say Sony won that gen. Consoles sold is just one metric.
@themightyant just look at market share from Gen 6 to Gen 7. Ps3 is one of the biggest failures in the history of game consoles. To compare raw sales numbers without that context is asinine.
@Jenkinss Agreed. While in the broader scheme of things, the PS3 did sell better than the 360, if you look at things from Sony and Microsoft's perspective, it's clear that the PS3 was a commercial disappointment and the 360 was a massive success. Sony lost, like, 60 million users from the PS2 era. I bet they were expecting the PS3 to sell as good, if not better, than the PS3 at first. Microsoft, meanwhile, probably wasn't expecting the Xbox 360 to do as good as it did. They wanted to beat PlayStation at their own game, yes, but I don't think they anticipated that they would have been able to do it so quickly.
The PS3 still did very well in Europe, Japan, and other territories, but it was crushed by the 360 in North America
I will say, though, that I think Sony ended things off on a better note than Microsoft did. During the second half of the PS3's lifespan, Sony did a really good job rebuilding their reputation and making compelling exclusives that people loved. Microsoft kinda did the opposite. Thanks to Don Mattrick, they started shifting away from the core gamer audience and doubled down on stuff like the Kinect in an attempt to capture Nintendo's audience. Even still, Mattrick's screw-ups weren't enough to harm the 360's sales by a major amount.The Xbox One, however? Well, we all know how that ended up...
From the day Mattrick took over to the day he left, XB when downwards. He handled everything wrong and it cost XB in a big way.
Unlike many people I think Kinect was cool, but I also think that it was focused on too much and they tried to make it a core gamer's device, when it was never going to be that. To this day, my adult (female) kids come home and they want to play the Kinect sports and dance games so I fire up the 360 and XBO just for that. There is a demographic that loved Kinnect. But forcing it on core gaming was a catastrophic mistake.
the jim ryan of xbox
Don't Mattrick, Jim Ryan... where do they get these guys.
While going with Quantum Computing is cool and is put to good use.
The Xbox One launch with Games for Windows Live and other 3rd party stuff getting in the way during Windows Vista/7 all leading up to happening on Xbox One (SmartGlass was at least cool even if no one used it) was a brilliant idea clearly. Sigh. XD
PS3 had 3D TVs, Move and PSP among more to offer and it was a choice or for 1 title 1st party title of the era (or any other ideas they that, likely not) and the 3rd parties offered the other if they wanted, just like PSVR, it's an option not a forced thing. 360/One Kinect really did get in the way at times. 3D TVs and more likely didn't.
Having enjoyed Wii and Move games, got to a few for Kinect, learning VR, it's been interesting seeing how good motion, good button inputs and balance of them has been, over the years. More so in current VR I think it's hit and miss and I enjoyed more Wii games then I did the other. Kinect was ok but even I could tell how much devs were struggling to gauge motion and how they used it in certain ways.
Kinect and PS4 Camera still got their Just Dance and others uses, Singstar was for PlayLink PS4 games (before PSVR, around time of SmartGlass, Wii U, Vita and more with smartphone apps was showing off second screen and after the PS4 Camera Playroom app Phone/Tablet or Vita DLCs) and went nowhere from there, other then Everybody 1 2 Switch smartphone support or the PS5 tactics game, that's about it.
360 gamers had no idea how they had it compared to Windows gaming that's for sure. But did with Xbox One.
That and the DRM, the used games yes, the Kinect, internet connection every day is just insane yes, forget having a holiday and an Xbox, let alone whatever retail staff had to do with them too.
His vision was pathetic and stupid.
I enjoyed the Windows 8 style features (2013 to 2017), I miss them, but the audience approach made no sense at all that had no interest jumping for the console and did every other thing they could in or outside of gaming.
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