Microsoft UK marketer given Xbox Euro post

Microsoft head of UK marketing Richard Teversham has been promoted to a newly created European role and will head a renewed marketing push for online gaming platform Xbox Live.

Teversham is now head of product and platform marketing for Europe at Xbox. He will report to director of platform and marketing for Europe Michel Cassius.

Teversham’s immediate brief will be to oversee the second wave of Xbox Live’s launch to six additional European countries – Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. Xbox Live has already been launched in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

XBox Live was launched in Europe in March and has attracted more than 50,000 gamers. Worldwide, more than 500,000 people use the Xbox Live platform.

Teversham will also oversee an increased focus on software at Microsoft Xbox. He will manage the company’s big Christmas releases, which include Project Gotham Racing 2.

As head of UK marketing for Xbox, Teversham, who reported to UK home and entertainment division director Chris Lewis, oversaw the launch of the console in March last year.

Microsoft is seeking a replacement for Teversham in the UK.

Microsoft moved its &£60m European Xbox advertising business out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty in May and awarded the account to McCann-Erickson, which handles the business in all other markets (MW May 8).