Though I had a prior commitment in New York and couldn’t be there myself, I was glad to see such a great showing for EA SPORTS last week as part of the GDC week festivities in San Francisco. It was the earliest we’ve demoed our new product lineup, and it was in front of the largest media gathering ever for our annual EA SPORTS Season Opener.

Last week also marked an important transition in leadership at EA SPORTS, as accomplished industry veterans Andrew Wilson and Pauline Moller assumed new roles helping to drive the future of EA SPORTS. Andrew, who has been leading our Global Online Group since last fall and was the creative leader behind the transformation of our FIFA business over the four years prior to that, is now running worldwide development for EA SPORTS. Pauline has been at EA for 13 years, most recently as GM of EAC, and now steps up to the new role of Chief Operating Officer for our label.

The departure of Steve Chiang allows us to graduate this new generation of creative leadership. Steve helped make a lot of great games with EA, and we understand his wish to try something different after nearly 15 years with the company. Andrew and Pauline represent an evolution in our creative team, they are a reflection of the deep bench of studio talent here at EA SPORTS, and they will help continue our commitment to the digital transformation of our sports business.

I couldn’t be more excited about the new roles for Andrew and Pauline, and as evidenced by the reaction last week to upcoming titles like EA SPORTS MMA, NBA JAM, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11, EA SPORTS Active 2.0 and 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, I hope gamers will be too. And for those of you who were intrigued by some of what you may have read about the exciting direction we’re taking Madden this year, be sure to check back later in the week for details on how we’re engaging our fans more than ever.

Finally, I saw this morning’s news about Tiger Woods. We’re looking forward to seeing Tiger back on the golf course. All eyes will be on Augusta in a few weeks.