After the precipitated departure of Peter Moore from Microsoft’s games division to Electronic Arts almost a month ago, it is now the time for an EA official to resign in order to move to Redmond.

Moore, the iconic figure that led the Microsoft’s game division left last month to “pursue other interests in the industry”, while EA provided his replacement, impersonated by Don Mattrick, a former president at the second largest developer and games publisher in the world (after Activision). Peter Moore decided to return along with his family to the Bay Area, but will continue to assist his newly appointed replacement at Microsoft during the month of August, to ensure a smooth transition. The following period is one of the most important in years for Microsoft’s games division, with the imminent launch of the long-expected Halo 3 for Xbox 360, Gears of War for PC and tons of new games for the next-gen console.

Now, another high profile executive from EA has left the company to join Redmond’s offensive in the gaming market. His name is John Schappert, a former vice president at EA, and he will be in charge of the operations at Microsoft’s LIVE software and services division, but on a newly created position. His responsibilities will include, among others, the Xbox LIVE service, which, according to Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, had 220 million downloads of content, including 45 million paid arcade games.

At EA, Schappert oversaw things such as central technology operations and was the chief operating officer of worldwide studios. He also oversaw the creation of the Madden franchise, and originally worked on it as a programmer.

Former EA boss and current Microsoft boss Don Mattrick said of the move: "I am thrilled to have John join the deep bench of proven talent already on Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. John's expertise will help us focus on expanding and enriching our market leadership with LIVE in areas like online services while broadening our audience. John will also build on the great work already happening in the developer community working with Chris Satchell and the XNA organization."