Microsoft's game business head promoted

Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business has a new leader…who is the same as its old leader. Today, the company announced it was elevating Don Mattrick from senior vice president of the division to its president. Mattrick will be most familiar to gamers from his stage appearances at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conferences.

The promotion was in title only, as Mattrick joined Microsoft in 2007 to head the IEB and has run it ever since. The Interactive Entertainment Business consists of all things Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Kinect, Zune Music and Video, and Mediaroom, as well as PC and mobile interactive entertainment. The latter two categories were folded into the IEB in late May, when Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, announced his attention to retire.

While most retirees give up a steady income when they leave a job, Bach is giving up a whole lot more. According to documents obtained by the Seattle Times, Bach is giving up $4.2 million in unvested stock options by retiring this year. That's 75 percent of the $5.6 million in stock options he was awarded as a performance-based bonus earlier this year. The bonus also had a $1.4 million cash component, all of which Bach will keep on top of his $645,000 salary when he leaves Microsoft at the end of the year.