EA Reorganizes and Creates Separate Label from BioWare

Publisher Electronic Arts has implemented a reorganization that makes BioWare a separate label, which will be transferred to the new business unit EA Labels. Peter Moore has been promoted to chief operating officer.

Electronic Arts has the EA Labels department established. The existing labels EA Games, EA Sports and EA Play will be transferred to the new branch; former EA Games front man Frank Gibeau will lead the new division. Mass Effect developer BioWare has been spun off from EA Games and transferred to EA Labels as an independent label.

Peter Moore, who led EA Sports, has been promoted to chief operating officer of EA, becoming the right-hand man to CEO John Riccitiello. Moore joined from Microsoft in 2007, where he was instrumental in the launch of both the Xbox and Xbox 360.

EA also announced that the purchase of PopCap has been completed. The studio, known for games like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, becomes part of EA Interactive. That is the industry that also includes Playfish, Pogo and EA Mobile, as well as the online initiatives in Asia and the partnership with board game manufacturer Hasbro.

EA wants to reorganize because, according to Riccitiello, the company must switch “from defense to attack”. The CEO already released this new strategy in April cloths, after the presentation of the latest annual figures. He wants to transform the company from the market leader in games in a box, to the market leader in games as a service.