Electronic Arts Names New COO

The head of EA Sports is set to take on the whole company as its chief operating officer. The Associated Press reports that Peter Moore will take on his new position starting Monday, August 8. Moore replaces John Schappert, who left Electronic Arts ERTS for a position at Zynga. According to the Associated Press, Frank Gibeau, the current president of EA Games, will become the new president of EA Labels, which will apparently combine EA Games, EA Sports, Bioware, and EA Play into one unit. Barry Cottle, who serves as the executive VP of EA Interactive, will be in charge of EA Mobile, Playfish, and Pogo, as well as the video games from Hasbro HAS. Cottle will also be in charge of PopCap once the acquisition is complete. John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, said that the company is switching from being a firm that is defensive to one that is offensive. “We're focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business,” he wrote in a message to employees. “We've established our own platform, Origin, and we continue to grow our digital business." GameSpot adds that Jeff Brown, EA's VP of corporate communication, said that the change is partly an extension of the publisher's strategy to consolidate cross-platform development within the company's studios. Whereas before the Facebook or mobile versions of Need for Speed and other games would be handed off to other studios, Electronic Arts has started to take a different approach. Now the same studio responsible for Need for Speed is responsible for making the Facebook iteration aswell, or whatever else may be needed. “Brown said that EA has found substantial success with this change, and today's reorganization is a ‘doubling-down' of those efforts,” GameSpot reports. Earlier this week Electronic Arts launched its (first?) subscription service, EA Sports Season Ticket. By paying the $24.99 annual fee, consumers can gain full access to select sports games three days before they are released. Follow me @LouisBedigian