Peter Moore Leaves Microsoft

- Press release by EA Sports

Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 16:46:57 EST

Peter Moore Named President of EA SPORTS Label

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-- Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that Peter Moore has joined EA as President of the EA SPORTS™ Label. Moore joins EA from Microsoft Corporation where he served as corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division, leading both the Xbox® and Games for Windows businesses. Moore begins at EA in September and will report to EA CEO John Riccitiello.

Mr. Moore’s appointment rounds out the leadership of John Riccitiello’s recent reorganization of EA into four autonomous Labels. Frank Gibeau serves as president of the EA Games Label; Kathy Vrabeck is president of EA Casual Entertainment; and Nancy Smith is president of The Sims™ Label.

“Peter Moore’s proven record of leadership in games and sports makes him a terrific fit for heading up EA SPORTS,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “As a partner at Microsoft and earlier, as a competitor, we’ve learned to respect his vision and leadership.”

“The people at EA SPORTS have created one of the strongest brands in the entertainment industry and John Riccitiello is building an organization which will extend the company’s leadership to new platforms and new audiences all over the world,” said Peter Moore. “I couldn’t be more excited about joining EA and moving my family back to the San Francisco Bay Area.”

The EA SPORTS Label is the strongest brand in the games business with blockbuster franchises such as Madden NFL, NBA LIVE, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, FIFA Soccer, NASCAR®, and others. With Peter Moore’s leadership and the passion, creativity and dedication of its development teams, EA SPORTS is expected to become even stronger in the years to come. EA plans to expand the EA SPORTS experience with new content, new platforms, new services and deep online integration.

At Microsoft, Mr. Moore was the president of the Xbox and Games for Windows businesses as well as game development at Microsoft Game Studios. Mr. Moore joined Microsoft in January 2003, originally as the head of marketing for the Xbox and Games division, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience and leadership in consumer businesses. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Moore was president and COO of SEGA of America, where he was responsible for overseeing SEGA’s video game business in North America. Before that, Mr. Moore was senior vice president of marketing at Reebok International Ltd., and earlier in his career, he was president of Patrick USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the popular French sportswear company, managing all the company’s marketing, sales, finance and distribution.

The press release from Microsoft can be viewed here...

What this means:

While not being a real reason to panic for Microsoft fanboys, they do lose "the guy with the tattoos", who was a big part of the Xbox's rise to prominence. Word on the street (the internet one...) is that Moore is leaving to go back to the Bay Area live with his family. That and the huge salary he is said to receive, as well as the large (large meaning million-dollar+) bonus.

The new vice president of IEB for Microsoft is now Don Mattick, a former executive position level employee at EA. While is certainly seems like a trade of sorts, Mattick was already an employee for about year as an adviser.