I had a moment to talk with Robbie Bach and Peter Moore replacement Don Mattrick a few minutes ago as they made the rounds calling interested media. You know an interview's going to be fun when it starts out with the interviewees congratulating you on scooping their press release. Nice.

Lets get the obvious out of the way first, Bach is adamant that Moore's resignation from Microsoft had nothing to do with the recent announcement of an extended Xbox 360 warranty and the hardware malfunctions rearing its ugly head.

"This decision was directly related to him wanting to be in California," Bach said. "He was in California when we hired him, his kids grew up there... and it's where he and his family wants and needs to be right now. I think it's sometimes a tendency to think, 'oh gosh, it's something else, but there isn't any other reason.

"It's not tied at all (to the recent warranty announcement), it's not related. If you think about it, the timing's really more about the EA reorganization. They created the job and were looking for someone and Peter was evaluating his situation."

Bach said that Moore first came to him "awhile back" to tell him he might be leaving to go to EA, but that it's only been "weeks" since the details were locked in.

"Once we got to that point I started talking to Don and looking at what we would do," Bach said.

I asked Bach about the difficulties in replacing the man who has essentially been the face of the Xbox 360 since its launch. His response: Everyone, including Moore and Bach himself is replaceable.

"My guess is in a few months from now no one will be thinking about it."

Mattrick too was there, a bit low-key but that's understandable on the day his predecessor's retirement was announced. He was a bit taken aback, I think, when my first question was whether he was prepared to get ink for Microsoft.

"That wasn't the first thing on my to-do list," he said. "I understand the personal reasons for his decision, but I think the job he had was the best one to have in the industry.

"If a tattoo is necessary we can double back on that."