Schappert stripped of game duties as Zynga shifts toward mobile games

Zynga chief operating officer John Schappert, who was woed away from rival Electronic Arts a bit more than a year ago, has been stripped of direct oversight of games at Zynga in the wake of plummeting earnings, Bloomberg reports.

Zynga chief operating officer John Schappert, who was wooed away from rival Electronic Arts a bit more than a year ago, has been stripped of direct oversight of games at Zynga in the wake of plummeting earnings, Bloomberg reports.

The move, meant to help shift the struggling company away from Facebook games and toward gaming on mobile devices, has David Ko, who runs Zynga's mobile operations, and Steve Chiang, executive vice president of games, now reporting directly to CEO Mark Pincus. Previously, the two reported to Schappert.

The push away from Facebook and toward mobile kicked off in early July, triggered by the company's subpar performance in its latest quarterly earning's report. That move seems aimed at divesting Zynga of its heavy reliance on Facebook as a platform for its games.

Bloomberg reports that Schappert, who previously helped run Electronic Arts and prior to that Microsoft Game Studios, has lost support within the company and taken some blame for Zynga's latest woes.

It is unclear what Schappert's new role will be in the company, though a company spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that the move was made to integrate web and mobile groups.

"Our players expect their favorite games on every platform," she told the Wall Street Journal, "and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multi platform opportunity."