Peter Moore resigns as head of Xbox

It's hard to call the Xbox 360 anything but a success, but having missed some sales numbers, ringing up an extra unexpected $1b on the corporate card because of warranty issues, and still generally failing to make a profit, it looks like Peter Moore, who we just sat down with a few days ago, has stepped down from his embattled position as the ringleader of Microsoft's Xbox group. Successor to his role is Don Mattrick, who is taking over not just Peter's position as VP of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, but leading the group (including Games for Windows) entirely. Moore's new job? Prez of EA Sports, down in the SF bay area. Take THAT, Microsoft.

[chenry @ Jul 17th 2007 4:22PM]

Sony lost their guy, MS losing their guy. What will be the fate of Reggie?

[Blackstar @ Jul 17th 2007 4:52PM]

Wow. Engadget interviews him, and now he's gone/fired/quit/moving on/needs time to spend with his family/better job/etc.

Think Engadget could interview Bill Gates too?

[Evan @ Jul 17th 2007 5:14PM]

Wow! Cya later Pete! That is crazy how fast things move these days. Maybe he can whip up a good Madden football game for a change now.

[Bman21212 @ Jul 17th 2007 5:18PM]

Bill Gates is already gone from Microsoft.

[Ant @ Jul 17th 2007 6:24PM]

I don't now who the hell this guy is but holding a 360 with one hand, thats gota hert, those things weigh a ton. He looks like he just found that out.

[your left nut @ Jul 17th 2007 7:19PM]

Maybe Microsoft realized that the Sega business model might not be the best way to go...

[FrankTheCrank @ Jul 17th 2007 9:25PM]

Doesn't it seem like poetic justice?

Moore goes from schilling for M$ to schilling for EA.

Almost seem the same doesn't it?

"and remember, Halo 3 lands Sept. 25th...and, well, that's about it...uhm, I'm outta here!"

[nmason @ Jul 17th 2007 4:23PM]

I wonder what the SEC will have to say about this.

[Brent @ Jul 17th 2007 4:23PM]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-17-2007/0004627449&EDATE=

[Evan @ Jul 17th 2007 4:23PM]

Uh... now what about the tattoos?

[K.R @ Jul 17th 2007 6:28PM]

He was upset that Microsoft wouldn't allow anymore tatoos, so he decided he'd go somewhere else to get all the tatoo's he wanted :P

[Blackstar @ Jul 17th 2007 6:31PM]

I see a USB powered Laser-Tattoo remover in the xbox 360's future line up.

[Alex @ Jul 17th 2007 4:24PM]

This is actually really sad for me. I thought that Peter Moore was a great representative and he seemed very genuine and honest.

One of my friends described it best when he said to me that when Moore gave a speech or talked about something it didn't seem like he was trying to force it upon you. Rather, it was like he had something cool and exciting to him that he wanted to share with you.

[Euri @ Jul 17th 2007 5:44PM]

You mean like that knockout performance he gave at E3, where there was dead silence at the unveiling of the Halo console? Please tell me you're kidding, the guy has no finesse whatsoever.

[Chris @ Jul 17th 2007 10:00PM]

I completely disagree (well, a camo green console is a dud). The benefit of Moore as a speaker was obvious after the other two slick sales guys who followed him during the rest of the event.

[Phour ZwanZig @ Jul 17th 2007 10:22PM]

Hey, Im with ya Alex..

I was just gettin to like this guy.. Why.. Oh well..

Now if N can dump Reggie, Id be happy..

[Neil @ Jul 17th 2007 4:25PM]

He's actually joining EA Sports...

ERTS Electronic Arts: Peter Moore Named President of EA SPORTS Label

Co announced that Peter Moore has joined EA as President of the EA SPORTS Label. Moore joins EA from Microsoft (MSFT) 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. Briefing.com note: See 16:12 MSFT comment.

[bethel03 @ Jul 17th 2007 4:28PM]

Wow, what a spineless pr*ck. Talking smack about the PS3 then stepping down... Well I don't blame him, he is moving on to bigger and better things (products that work the first time around)

[stephen @ Jul 17th 2007 4:38PM]

@bethel03 - lol, products that work the first time?! The only "first time" product EA Sports has ever had was in (guessing) 1992 when it launched its first football/basketball/baseball/etc game. From then on its just a re-ejaculation of the same thing (to a non-sports fan anyway).

On another note, i know its kinda corporate procedure, and if i were in their [microsoft] situation, I'd probably do the same. but i find it ironic that instead of being given the chance to learn from mistakes, people are axed...

[Eric @ Jul 17th 2007 5:22PM]

To stephen:
Guys (and gals) are paid way too much at that level to have a "learning curve". You shouldn't be given chances to screw up at that level and stick around.

[Jason @ Jul 20th 2007 8:47AM]

Yeah... because anyone who speaks his mind and pursues a career path is a spineless prick, then. Stop thinking of corporations as individuals... it's bad psychology.

[Darkwun @ Jul 17th 2007 4:29PM]

after the CE-Oh no he didn't, part XXXVIII: Peter Moore tells Sony it's failing outburst who could've seen this coming

let the fanboy flaming commence

[w00fd06 @ Jul 17th 2007 4:51PM]

Ya, I'm actually gonna have to agree w/ you on this one, I mean, saying that a competing company is failing, then, just a few hours later saying that your going to resign, that's just bad. Don't get me wrong though, I still love MS.

[just.Rob @ Jul 18th 2007 12:28AM]

more like:

CE-Oh No He Isn't

[David Landrum @ Jul 17th 2007 4:34PM]

Will he join Ken Kutaragi out in the pasture?

[RICK @ Jul 17th 2007 4:35PM]

I enjoyed listening to Peter Moore up until Sony released their PS3 and he changed tactics. I own a 360 but it just seemed like he was resorting to Sega vs. Nintendo crap I was sick of 20 years ago.

[Agathos @ Jul 17th 2007 4:37PM]

Guy did a good job, I agree that 360 fanboys sometimes forget that he 360 even now is not profitable to MS and was set back again by crappy hardware costs, but the point is that the 360 is in a position to be profitable in the next few years.

MS, maybe due to this guys lead, got a console out a year ahead of the competition and pushed online services and online gameplay forward and is pushing the industry toward catering to and making a console easy for developers meaning we get more and better games.

Sony churned out some slick hardware but missed the other points.

Overall MS has heated up the competetion making things great for gamers, my hats off to any guy like this that had a part in it.

[Lumptoe @ Jul 17th 2007 10:41PM]

The Online features were there before the XBox 360. Sure there are some new bells and whistle but nothing amazing.

Was he in charge of the Zune as well? I know that came from the XBox department but not sure if he headed that brick.

What he brought to MS was the childishness of the Sega-BigN days?

Wonder if he is going to scream at the 2K Sports team that they are failing.

[Raymond @ Jul 17th 2007 4:38PM]

next one that should get fired from xbox is major nelson. Don't talk about sony or nintendo when your company can't make a dime and my system keeps dying and you keep lying about it. Great job microsoft make some changes.

[stephenbratz @ Jul 17th 2007 5:00PM]

Funny how there are two posts, with the same exact text, one after another but from two different people (JGUNZNP and Raymond). In other words, either the sony fanboys are having problems making up original content (just like Sony's games), or Sony's marketing team is having problems making up original content (just like they did with the PG3 screen shots). Either way, [pats JGUNZNP/Raymond on the head] that's ok little boy, at least you tried.

[Raymond @ Jul 17th 2007 5:12PM]

@stephenbratz

No that was me I forgot I was logged in with my name. But the real post is from JGUNZNP double post sorry. Anyways am not way a fanboy I have all three systems am just tired of the big xbox fanboys talking about nintendo and sony when thier company is as bad as the other 2.

[JGUNZNP @ Jul 17th 2007 4:38PM]

next one that should get fired from xbox is major nelson. Don't talk about sony or nintendo when your company can't make a dime and my system keeps dying and you keep lying about it. Great job microsoft make some changes.

[Psychotron @ Jul 17th 2007 4:39PM]

Wow. First he takes shots at Sony, steps down from his position at Microsoft and now he heads for a company's division whose main title became a monster thanks in part to a machine that Sony created? Nice.

[nikster @ Jul 17th 2007 8:00PM]

Nothing personal, just business ;)

[Scott @ Jul 17th 2007 5:32PM]

Given the high rate of console failures leading to the $1B loss on a console that was supposed to be breaking even by this point, as well as the channel-stuffing and lackluster sales, I think it would be better to rephrase the original sentence as "It's hard to call the Xbox 360 a success". Or "anything but problematic", what have you.

[T.H. @ Jul 17th 2007 4:44PM]

This is rich. First you talk smack about Sony, whom you consider your main competition. Then you resign from your current job to work for a company who makes products for Sony.

I think Microsoft lost a really good leader in Peter Moore. He's not always right but he has a great deal of knowledge that I think was instrumental in the Microsoft Xbox consoles being where they are today. I seriously believe that MS would be in a much worse position without Moore these last few years.

[Simba @ Jul 18th 2007 4:06PM]

Doesn't Microsoft makes products for Sony? Vaio and SE phones dont run on OSX.

[Señor Swanky @ Jul 17th 2007 4:51PM]

I wonder how the job interview went.

"I see here on your résumé that you headed the division that has yet to make a profit and recently lost an additional billion dollars, likely causing the entire endeavor to be considered a business laughing stock for eternioty."

"Well... uh...:

"I don't need to hear anymore. You're hired. Shhh, but I hate my coworkers."

[Matt @ Jul 17th 2007 4:58PM]

Aah, like a scene from Dilbert :P

[Lumptoe @ Jul 17th 2007 10:41PM]

Let's add the fact that he assisted in the Dreamcast downfall.

[Jeff Lewis @ Jul 17th 2007 4:53PM]

"It's hard to call the Xbox 360 anything but a success, but having..."

I think you mean "It's hard to call the XBox 360 anything LIKE a success..." or "It's NOT hard to call the XBox 360 anything but a success..." since in fact, the rest of the post goes on to indicate that it is not a success, ergo - it's easy to call the XBox 360 anything but a success.

Of course, depends on how you measure success. They sell more XBox 360s than Sony sells PS3s. Remember that with the exception of the Wii, most consoles are sold at a loss with the idea that the company will make up the loss and even an addition profit from game sales.

As for his stepping down after slagging the PS3 - they're kind of unrelated. The PS3 IS doing badly. That's a fact by any metric - and we've seen such wonderful moments as Sony putting out a press release letting everyone know that the 'shortage' of PS3s is finally over... When everyone went 'Huh? What shortage?' it turned out that they meant 'if the shelves aren't completely stocked, there's a shortage' as compared to the Wii's 'we don't got any to sell ya anywhere' kind of shortage.

In this case, it's more likely that EA offered him a plum job that Microsoft couldn't match. It's often just that simple.

[Phred @ Jul 17th 2007 5:00PM]

Interesting definition of success: selling each product at a loss and contributing billions of dollars of red to the parent compnay...

[timatl @ Jul 17th 2007 5:04PM]

it must have been the intro for the halo edition 360 that did him in. it was sad

[Matt @ Jul 17th 2007 5:11PM]

Hmmm, interesting take everyone seems to be going with the 360 here. Since when is profitability of a console considered "success" by gamers. Have you all forgotten two years ago when you were ramming the Gamecube for being a failure by being in third place by market share, but perhaps making more money for Nintendo then the PS2 did for Sony and the Xbox did for Microsoft?

It was not even a year ago that people were claiming that Nintendo should have bumped up the specs on the Wii to take a loss on it and make up the money elsewhere.

So what is it guys? Market share or profit that you are claiming a success. If you go off your statements of less then a year ago then marketshare = success and I would say then that Peter Moore did a pretty fantastic job taking a console from nothing to the best selling in the U.S. all while arguably pushing the bar up for what online gaming should be for consoles.

In all honesty though does it really matter if the Xbox division ever turns a profit? Microsoft makes more money off of Windows Office, and IE then it knows what to do with. If it can create a halo effect with the Xbox (not the game) like Apple does with the iPod and push the company into the consumer electronics business then does it really matter? In the bigger picture it just pushes the company more and more into the "digital living" provider rather then just a computer provider.

[Lumptoe @ Jul 17th 2007 10:41PM]

Dude. Do a bit of research. Nintendo didn't make more money on the Gamecube than Sony on the PS2. Nintendo was the first to turn a profit per unit but only for less than a year. Sony outsold both XBox and Gamecube combined. Also Sony had multiple price cuts for the PS2 since the software profits were so high they recovered their lost from it. If you try to spin this and state that the Wii is the same as the Gamecube and the numbers can be combined then you should know that the PS2 is still selling.

Also MS makes no money on IE. Apple makes a ton of money on the iPod Hardware and iTunes is able to sustain itself.

The failure in the XBox line is Peter Moore and whoever QA'ed the hardware. He had nothing to do with the success of XBox Live or Halo and those are the two main driving forces for the 360.

At this point in the console wars... All of them are dead in the water. XBox 360 is wait for Halo. PS3 is waiting for something good... Metal Gear? Wii needs to continue with innovative titles but it's starting to see the typical Big N rehash. Same crap is occurring in the portable market as well.

[Chris Moroz @ Jul 17th 2007 5:12PM]

Everyone's talking Sony Sony, but no one has mentioned how he did the same thing at Sega, right? Put out big promises and then didn't fulfill. I'm not saying the 360 is a flop like the Dreamcast was, I'm just saying I never expected anything less from him when they announced it in the first place.

[Evan @ Jul 17th 2007 5:43PM]

Sega CD sealed the fate of the Dreamcast before it even came out.

[fli @ Jul 17th 2007 5:12PM]

Peter moore is the person that brought us the 360.
hats off ... were gonna miss u.

[jar @ Jul 17th 2007 5:23PM]

*Conspiracy Theory Alert*

Could it be that Microsoft is injecting a higher-up into a company known more for making good PlayStation games? Conversation goes like this:

Peter: I'm leaving to head up EA.
Steve: Hmmm, ok. Lock the 360 into a few games or I'll crush you like a gorilla.
Peter: Yess..yesss sirrr...

[adriangrab @ Jul 17th 2007 11:27PM]

I wouldn't even call it a conspiracy theory - it's a fairly common business practice in other industries.

For example, in business consulting, everyone signs a contract stating that they will not leave their consulting firm to work for a client. Many (if not most) consultants do, and the firms don't have a problem with it. This is because the former consultants are very likely to hire the consulting firm they worked for to do major projects.

I wouldn't be surprised if EA developed a closer relationship with xbox. I'm sure much of the gaming industry is about relationships.