In what could best be described as a slow motion game of musical chairs, Microsoft yesterday announced that corporate vice president for entertainment and devices Peter Moore will leave the company in September to assume the job of label president of EA Sports for Electronic Arts. Replacing Moore at Microsoft is EA's former president of worldwide studios Don Mattrick, who is currently serving as an external adviser to the entertainment and devices group at Microsoft. (Got that? Good--there may be a quiz later.)

We were briefed by executives at both Microsoft and Electronic Arts; Moore himself, however, was not on either call. Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division--and Moore's boss--said that he was sorry to see Moore leave, but that Moore wanted to move his family back to the Bay Area. We inquired of Bach whether there was any connection between Moore's departure and the recent announcement of the Xbox 360's hardware flaws; he flatly denied it. When asked why he decided to step off the sidelines and back into the game, incoming Xbox chief Mattrick--whose title will be senior vice president--said that as far as he was concerned, the opportunity was too strong to pass up.

EA CEO John Riccitiello gave us Electronic Arts' side of the corporate do-si-do. He explained that he'd tried to recruit Moore to EA on a couple of occasions in the late '90s and early 2000s, praising Moore as the toughest competitor that EA Sports had ever faced, as well as for his work on both software and hardware at Microsoft. We're still trying to suss out what all of this means, but at first glance, Microsoft has brought in a respected industry veteran to fill Moore's shoes, while EA appears to have assembled the deepest bench of executive talent of any third party publisher. Caveat competitor.