Microsoft confirmed this afternoon that Peter Moore, the head of the company's video games business, is resigning for personal reasons. Those reasons? He and his family want to get back to the San Francisco area and he got a job as president of EA Sports, the sports label of leading game publisher, Electronic Arts.

Replacing Moore is Don Mattrick, a game industry veteran who spent 23 years with EA.

People attending the Casual Connect gaming conference in Seattle this morning might have caught a scent of this news coming. In opening remarks at the show, Mark Cottam, CEO of MumboJumbo, noted that Marc Whitten, general manager of casual games at Microsoft, would be subbing for Moore, who was billed as a keynote speaker.

"Unfortunately, Peter Moore had a last-minute scheduling change," Cottam said.