Schappert quits EA for Zynga

Tue 26 Apr 2011 1:35pm GMT / 9:35am EDT / 6:35am PDT
People Publishing

Exec who once had EA "in my blood" leaves for social games company

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts' chief operating officer John Schappert quit the company yesterday, a filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed.

And according to sources close to Reuters, the games exec is to take a post at social games firm Zynga.

Schappert returned to Electronic Arts in 2009 after some years at Microsoft, filling the COO role left by the departure of John Pleasants - who left the company to take a role at another social firm, Playdom.

At the time he said he had EA "in my blood" having originally worked at Electronic Arts as a software engineer in 1991, and on multiple EA Sports titles.

His new role at Zynga has not yet been confirmed. GamesIndustry.biz has requested comment.

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14 Comments

Graham Simpson
Tea boy

Collins Stewart

One can only imagine the options package they waved under his nose.

Posted:2 years ago

#1

Dr. Chee Ming Wong

I doubt he left due to creative opportunities at Zynga. Perhaps more of show me the money. lotsa money :)

Posted:2 years ago

#2

Andrew Goodchild

You don't think it was the excitement of working on innovative future projects like Allotmentville, Bus stationville, and Plumber wars then, Chee?

Posted:2 years ago

#3

Frankie Kang
Producer / Consultant

This event is all the more interesting after John Riccitiello publicly announced EA's goal to unseat Zynga from the social games pedestal a few weeks ago.

Posted:2 years ago

#4

Graham Simpson
Tea boy

Collins Stewart

And therein lies your conflict of interest. The announcement via SEC filing is rather, shall we say... cold and efficient. Was he pushed or did he jump.....

Posted:2 years ago

#5

Diarmuid Murphy
Developer Marketing

Looks like Zynga are putting all that venture capital money to use buying startups and hiring experienced execs.

Posted:2 years ago

#6

Michael Lewis
Product Manager

Electronic Arts

That's really a shame, he was a great guy to work for. No BS, hard worker, engineering minded.

Posted:2 years ago

#7

Feargus Carroll
Producer

Does he get to keep the bullhorn?

Posted:2 years ago

#8

Werner Nemetz
Loc QA Lead

Activision Blizzard Ireland

Always wonder why people go to Zynga.

They could offer me double my salary and I still wouldn`t work for them :D

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Werner Nemetz on 26th April 2011 7:17pm

Posted:2 years ago

#9

Kristina Rothe
Producer

Travian Games GmbH

With all that high level staff I am kind of waiting for an EA-like Zynga presentation of allotmentville, bus stationville etc. at E3 2012. ;) The stage show must be awesome.

Anyway, best of luck to him.

Posted:2 years ago

#10

Dr. Chee Ming Wong

because - its like a get rich quick scheme..no matter how challenging it may be, at least a commensurate pay packet of even 6 months must be worth it

Posted:2 years ago

#11

David Bachowski
VP Business Development

pretty sure if you work for zynga you get paid after the first minute, then after 5 minutes, then an hour, then a day...

Posted:2 years ago

#12

Dr. Chee Ming Wong

@ David - thats a pretty memorable quote.

Posted:2 years ago

#13

David Bachowski
VP Business Development

@ Dr. Chee - thanks :)

Posted:2 years ago

#14

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