Former Xbox boss Don Mattrick has left Zynga, and the company’s founder is back in as CEO.

Less than two years after he took the job, Mattrick has quit and been replaced by Zynga founder and chairman Mark Pincus.

"When I joined the company in July 2013, Mark and I shared a vision of building a meaningful company that redefines entertainment in an increasingly mobile world," Mattrick said in a statement.

"I am proud of the progress we have made together. I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga's unique strengths.

“As a company, Zynga is in a stronger position today to serve mobile consumers and take advantage of the unprecedented growth opportunity across our industry. I am excited about the company's trajectory and wish the best for Mark, Zynga and NaturalMotion as I plan to return to Canada to pursue my next challenge."

Following Mattrick's announcement, the company’s stock value has dropped 10 percent.

Mattrick took the CEO position at a tough time for Zynga, but still attracted criticism when it posted a US$226m loss in the 2014 financial year.

"Don joined us in a very important time in our evolution. I sincerely thank him for his leadership in better serving our players in a mobile first world and for delivering world class quality and value to our consumers," said Pincus.

"Now that we are a mobile first company, it's time to renew our focus on our founding mission to connect the world through games and our vision to make play and social games a mass market activity."

Mattrick will probably be best remembered to gamers as the guy who took the stage at E3 in 2013 to announce a slew of incredibly unpopular policies regarding DRM for the Xbox One – policies that were quickly recanted.

He received a US$5m signing bonus, US$1m annual salary, and US$40m in stock options when he joined Zynga.

Despite his departure, he will still be eligible to collect US$25 million of those options, as well as two years' salary and bonuses.