Peter Moore Takes Over As EA’s COO In Company Reorganisation

Peter Moore, president of EA Sports for the past four years, has been promoted to Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer in a company-wide reorganisation, John Riccitiello, the EA chief executive, said today.

Moore, 55, takes over a position vacant since former COO John Schappert left for Zynga in April. Moore had been president of EA Sports since 2007, the time of the last large-scale reorganisation at EA.

Riccitiello also said that Frank Gibeau, formerly the president of EA Games, now holds the title of President of the EA Labels. EA’s publishing labels have now been reorganised into to four: EA Games, EA Sports, EA Play and BioWare.

Update: Andrew Wilson, formerly the senior vice president of development for EA Sports, is now the president of that label, said EA Sports spokesman David Tinson. Wilson is an 11-year veteran of Electronic Arts, having served as executive producer of the FIFA series before ascending to his latest position.

Electronic Arts spokesman Jeff Brown told Kotaku that EA Play will be headed by Lucy Bradshaw, formerly a senior vice president with a background overseeing The Sims franchise. EA BioWare is a label split off from EA Games and will be run by Ray Muzyka, the BioWare co-founder. EA Games, whose label name could change, is to be run by Patrick Soderlund, who came aboard when EA acquired Battlefield developer DICE in 2006.

Barry Cottle will now head EA Interactive, which includes mobile device publisher EA Mobile, the free online games publisher Pogo, the Facebook games developer Playfish, the publisher’s partnership with Hasbro, and PopCap, once EA’s purchase of that developer is complete.

Noting that, in the past four years, Electronic Arts had built a $US800 million digital business “while pushing down operating costs,” Riccitiello said EA was “shifting from defence to offence”.

“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. We are already seeing big returns on our investment in change. That’s why this is precisely the right time to update our organisation.”

John Riccitiello: Changing and Growing [Electronic Arts]