EA's Peter Moore Promoted to Chief Operating Officer

Some restructuring is going on within Electronic Arts, it was revealed today. The biggest of these moves is that EA Sports President Peter Moore has been promoted to the role of Chief Operating Officer, putting him right near the top of the publisher's hierarchy.

In a message on the EA website, CEO John Riccitiello outlined the changes, which he called "the first material re-organization" since the EA labels structure was set up in 2007. He believes what has happened over the past four years has been successful, as EA has built an expansive digital business and increased the quality of its games.

"Now, we are switching from defense to offense. We're focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business. We've established our own platform, Origin, and we continue to grow our digital business," he wrote. "We are already seeing big returns on our investment in change. That's why this is precisely the right time to update our organization."

Frank Gibeau, the current president of EA Games, will become the president of EA Labels, which is comprised of EA Games, EA Sports, EA Play, and BioWare. He previously served in a number of executive roles at EA such as senior VP of North American marketing and executive VP and GM of the Americas.

EA's mobile, social, and online division, EA Interactive, will be led by its former executive VP, Barry Cottle. That means he'll oversee Playfish, Pogo, EA Mobile, PopCap (soon, at least), and more. Cottle joined EA in 2007 after spending time at Palm and The Walt Disney Company.

Riccitiello said of the changes, "[A]s I look across EA and back on its history, I come to an important realization. The people who succeed here are the ones who map their creative vision over a deep understanding of what our consumers want. Our Label structure reflects that strategy. It creates a close partnership between developers and product marketers that connects the creative process to our consumers.

"This is an exciting time. The opportunities are growing exponentially and EA is growing and changing to capture them."

The Moore move is a particularly big one. Prior to joining EA Sports in 2007, he had served as the COO of Sega and corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, which saw him as the face of the Xbox 360.

He takes over the COO position at EA from John Schappert, another former Microsoft corporate VP, who left EA this past April.

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