Greg Canessa leaves Xbox Live for PopCap Games

Greg Canessa leaves Xbox Live for PopCap Games

One of the Microsoft’s top gaming executives Greg Canessa has moved on to accept a vice presidency position with PopCap Games.

Canessa is a seven-year veteran and founder of the Xbox Live Arcade service. He has more than 15 years experience in the gaming industry.

PopCap specializes in making small scale addictive games. Their best known game, Bejeweled, has sold more than 10 million copies on several different platforms.

The company claims that overall gamers have downloaded more than 200 million copies of the company’s word and puzzle games over the past five years.

Brian O’Rourke, a senior analyst at In-Stat spoke about the possibilities for PopCap: “Live Arcade has had some success in extending the Xbox Live brand. To the extent that Greg is responsible for that, hiring him is a good move for PopCap.”

O’Rourke added: “Mobile phones are increasingly being built with larger screens and they are pushing gaming more. The handheld and mobile worlds of gaming are expanding and might be the way for PopCap to go.”