Skip to main content

Xbox Chief Peter Moore Leaves Microsoft

Xbox Chief Peter Moore Leaves Microsoft

Microsoft announced today that Peter Moore, the head of its Xbox and Games for Windows businesses, has resigned from the company.

Moore will stay on through August to assist in the transition. In a statement, Microsoft says Moore has decided to move his family back to northern California and pursue "another opportunity in the video game industry."

What Microsoft doesn’t say is that Moore’s new position is as president of Electronic Art’s EA Sports label, home to titles like Madden NFL,NBA Live, and FIFA Soccer.

"The people at EA SPORTS have created one of the strongest brands in the entertainment industry," said Moore in an Electronic Arts release. "John Riccitiello is building an organization which will extend the company’s leadership to new platforms and new audiences all over the world. I couldn’t be more excited about joining EA and moving my family back to the San Francisco Bay Area."

Moore lived in the SF Bay area before joining Microsoft in 2003.

Stepping into Moore’s role as corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment business will be Don Mattrick, a former executive at video game developer and publisher Electronic Arts. Mattrick joined EA when his own company, Distinctive Software, Inc., merged with EA in 1991. Mattrick held various senior positions at EA until he resigned in February 2006; a year later, he signed on as an external advisor to Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division.

"While Peter will certainly be missed, we are delighted to have one of the industry’s most talented and passionate veterans on board to lead the business," said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, in a statement. "Don is well-known and respected throughout the industry for his deep knowledge, technical expertise and management savvy. Under Don’s leadership, the games team is looking forward to embarking on our biggest holiday ever, with a wide-ranging roster of some of the most highly anticipated titles."

Under Moore’s leadership, the Xbox has generally come to be regarded as a success in the video game industry, and efforts with Xbox Live Marketplace with the Xbox 360 have been particularly successful. However, Moore has faced pressures to deliver better numbers: the console has never racked up the sales numbers Microsoft hoped for, particularly in markets like Japan, and Microsoft has now set aside over $1 billion to pay for high rates of failure in the Xbox 360 console.

[Thumbnail image from gamerscoreblog, used under Creative Commons license.]

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
The best Dragon’s Dogma 2 mods
Dragon's Dogma 2 key art featuring a knight with a fiery hole in their chest.

Even before release, there were some red flags about how Dragon's Dogma 2 would perform on a technical level. While console players need to wait and hope for patches to fix things, those on PC can already improve their games through the hard work of modders. Of course, technical improvements are only one area where modders focus. With such a massive world and many systems in place, Dragon's Dogma 2 is brimming with potential for mods of all shapes and sizes. Aside from mods that just improve your performance, most are better saved for after you've reached the true ending, but no one is going to stop you if you'd rather start experimenting from the start. Here are a handful of the best mods you should try in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler 01 - Puredark

For whatever reason, Dragon's Dogma 2 launched with its DLSS3 function disabled. While it is assumed it will be turned on at some point with a patch, modder Puredark went ahead and released the simple Dragon's Dogma 2 DLSS3 Enabler 01 to let you actually play the game with better visuals and framerates. If you have an Nvidia 4000 series GPU, there's no reason not to install this simple enabler.
Crazy's Shop

Read more
V Rising – Legacy of Castlevania crossover will let you fight Simon Belmont
Castlevania's Simon Belmont in V Rising.

Stunlock Studios and Konami have revealed that the survival crafting game V Rising will feature Castlevania crossover content when it leaves early access this May.

V Rising is a survival game where players control a vampire, and this crossover adds Simon Belmont as a hunter who's constantly trying to track down and kill players. If Simon Belmont is defeated, players will be able to equip and use his whip as a weapon. While that content is being added to V Rising free of charge as soon as it hits 1.0, a paid Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack DLC will also be released. Purchasing it will net players Castlevania-themed decorations and music for their lair. These are all fitting crossover spots for a game that already heavily features vampires and pumps some life back into an unfortunately dormant game series.

Read more
What is dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and how is it cured?
A dragon roars in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Dragon's Dogma 2 likes to keep many of its mechanics and systems a secret until you discover them. You will learn quickly that you can't fast travel around the map freely, but there's one mechanic that is far more detrimental to your game. This is called dragonsplague and it is a disease that can't be cured with a simple tonic. In fact, you may not even realize if you have it in your game because it isn't something that affects your character at all; instead, it affects your Pawns. Failing to recognize you have dragonsplague and deal with it in a timely manner can ruin your entire playthrough if you're not careful. To avoid such a catastrophe, here are all the details about this cruel disease.
What is dragonsplague?

Dragonsplague is a special kind of disease that Pawns can contract seemingly by interacting with either Drakes or Dragons. That part isn't fully clear yet, however, we do know that Pawns with dragonsplague can spread the disease to other Pawns. Since Pawns are able to pass between worlds to join other players, you are never fully safe from being infected if you're playing online. Unlike a real sickness, though, dragonsplague actually transfers between Pawns rather than spreads, meaning it won't fully run rampant through the game.

Read more