Microsoft announced today that the company has appointed longtime Electronic Arts exec John Schappert to the newly created position of corporate vice president of Live, software and services. In this new role, Schappert will oversee Xbox Live (which has more than 7 million members across 25 countries) and he will also oversee related businesses such as Games for Windows – Live, XNA and Microsoft Casual Games, which includes over 400 games via MSN Games, Windows Live Messenger, Windows games and Xbox Live Arcade.

Schappert has a long history in the video game industry. He founded Florida-based Tiburon Entertainment (known for Madden) in 1994, which was then acquired by EA four years later. Schappert has overseen the creation of hundreds of games for EA, including of course the aforementioned Madden NFL football franchise; he was originally a programmer for the Madden games.

Most recently, Schappert was executive vice president at EA and his role in central development services included oversight of central technology, operations, EA online and the office of the chief creative officer. Prior to that, he held several senior-level positions at EA including chief operating officer of worldwide studios, group general manager, and general manager of EA Canada and EA Tiburon.

Schappert will now report to Don Mattrick, the newly named senior vice president of IEB, who just replaced Peter Moore. A Microsoft spokesperson told GameDaily BIZ that Schappert does not officially become a Microsoft employee until August 20.

"I am thrilled to have John join the deep bench of proven talent already on Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business," Mattrick said. "John's expertise will help us focus on expanding and enriching our market leadership with Live in areas like online services while broadening our audience. John will also build on the great work already happening in the developer community working with Chris Satchell and the XNA organization."