Blizzard have this week recruited Greg Canessa, formerly Live group manager, to work alongside Rob Pardo on an "unannounced project in the space".

Having cut his teeth working on Xbox Live, Canessa also worked for game giants before being recruited by Blizzard.

"It's been a pleasure working with him and his move is largely predicated on it being a big personal and professional opportunity for him," offered PopCap's Arth Chouteau, wishing Canessa farewell.

"This isn't going to have any material impact on our console presence and our with respect to the consoles and the and the areas that Greg was heading up. We're still very committed to those."

Blizzard are believed to working away on a secret MMO, that will be based on a new IP. Whether or not Canessa will be dabbling in this remains unknown.

By Luke Guttridge