Former Xbox Boss Don Mattrick Has A New Job, And He's Been Named CEO

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: