Let the conspiracies begin

Well, now that the news is out about Peter Moore's departure, we can all get down to the really fun stuff: hatching conspiracy theories.

The best, of course, and the most plausible, is that the $1 billion-plus cost of extending the 360's warranty upset the top brass at Microsoft so much that someone's head had to roll.

Since Moore was head of the Xbox division, he was the sacrificial lamb.

Maybe.

The only way I could actually see this being true is if Moore was the person responsible for the original shoddy design of the console.

Perhaps he was.

He may well have had the option of choosing from different motherboard designs or manufacturing methods, picked what seemed like the cheapest, and then got bit.

Or, more likely, EA simply offered Moore a ton of money, and he opted to leave.

But it is a little odd that Moore, about to take a job where he will have to cheerlead for all the consoles, recently took an unnecessary swipe at Sony's troubles in Japan.

He now has to basically turn on a dime and make the case that the PS3 is a great console, well worth the price tag, and that Blu-ray is awesome.

So while I don't think Moore was outright fired, I do suspect that, as it became clear just how costly the warranty extension would be, Microsoft didn't feel too bad about bringing someone else on board.

One billion dollars is a lot of money, even for Microsoft.