Peter Moore promoted to EA Chief Operating Officer

Peter Moore has had a rather illustrious career in video games so far. First, he was the former president and COO of Sega of America during the Dreamcast era. Eventually, he moved on to become the Corporate Vice President of the Interactive Entertainment Business of Microsoft, where he ended up promoting Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV with various tattoos on his arms. Most recently, he became President of EA Sports.

Today, Electronic Arts has announced a promotion of Moore, making him Chief Operating Officer of the company, a position once held by John Schappert.

John Schappert recently departed the company for social gaming giant Zynga, leaving the position open for a few months.

His departure has seemingly triggered a major reorganization within the company. In addition to Moore's promotion, Frank Gibeau is being promoted to President of the EA Labels, which has also been restructured. The Labels are now expanding to four: EA Games, EA Sports, EA Play and BioWare.

The spinoff of BioWare reflects the company's growing expectations for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The upcoming MMO has been in high demand, breaking EA's own pre-order records, and it's clear that EA expects big returns. The reorganization mirrors that of one of its primary competitors--Activision's Blizzard unit, which operates the massively successful World of Warcraft, operates largely separated from the rest of the company.

In addition, Barry Cottle is heading up EA Interactive which now includes Playfish, Pogo, EA Mobile, Hasbro games, the online and mobile business in Asia and eventually, PopCap.

"This is an exciting time," EA CEO John Riccitiello said. "The opportunities are growing exponentially and EA is growing and changing to capture them."