There has been a lot of hazy reporting over the last two days about Peter Moore’s resignation, and now that the dust has cleared I have decided to put all the info and links into one definitive post. So without further ado, here is the Peter Moore Resignation Fact Sheet.

• Peter Moore announced his resignation on the 17th and that he would be taking up a job at EA Games as the Head of the EA Sports branch of the company. Microsoft and EA confirmed this on the same day.
• The reason for Moore’s departure from Microsoft had to do with his family wanting to return to the Bay Area in California, and this EA position will allow them to live and work where they feel at home. His resignation did not have anything to do with the recent 3 year warranty business, and I am pretty sure that everyone is accepting that as fact. All of the theories about him leaving for these reasons should really be put to rest.
• Don Mattrick will sit in as Peter Moore’s replacement, who’s background in the industry includes being the President of EA, and an External Adviser at Microsoft up until now. He will step in at the end of August as Moore will stick around to halp with the transition until then. Mattrick has said that he does not think he needs to do any major tweaking at his new Xbox position, as the branch has been run very well up until now.
• Moore’s salary info at EA was announced after the press release detailing his resignation. His base salary will be $550,000 dollars and he is entitled to a discretionary target bonus of up to 75% of this. In addition, during his first 30 days at EA, Mr. Xbox 360 will receive a $1.5 million dollar signing bonus to assure he stays on board for at least 2 years. If he leaves within his first 2 years at the company, he will be responsible for paying that bonus back to the company. If Peter does indeed stay fro 2 years, he will receive 25,000 company shares, and 25,000 more will be granted to him after 4 years at EA. On top of all that, Moore will be getting $330,000 in moving expenses to help him get back to the Bay Area. Damn!
• Peter Moore says farewell to Microsoft, the Xbox community, and Major Nelson during the latest episode of Major Nelson Radio. In the interview, Moore talks about the reason for his decision and his future at EA and in the Bay Area.

After all is said and done, I don’t think anyone wants to see Peter Moore depart from his position above the platform that he helped build and make successful, but as he says during his Major Nelson Radio interview, his family’s wishes must come first over his desire to stay at a certain job. It will certainly be tough for Mattrick to fill the shoes of the former face of Xbox, but Microsoft seems to have utmost confidence in his ability to get the job done. From Halo 2 and GTA IV tattoos, to his recent foray into the world of Video Game Music Simulators with Rock Band, everyone can remember something about Peter Moore’s time at the company. Let’s just hope his successor is half the public speaker and figure as he was.

Related Link: Major Nelson Radio – The One Where Peter Moore Says Goodbye

Edit: I just noticed that I kept saying retirement instead of resignation during the post (including in the title). Oops. Sorry about that, I fixed it now.