Effective July 9, Chris Early will become the general manager of Windows Live. Replacing his former position is casual games executive Bryan Tussel.

Formerly the president and chief operating officer for GameSpy Industries, Early's first position in Microsoft was as a studio manager for Microsoft Casual Games and product unit manager for Xbox Live Arcade. His specialty is the ins and outs of multiplayer gaming, which makes him the ideal man to fill the role in taking Windows Live a step further into becoming a milestone in the gaming industry.

Windows Live is Microsoft's new initiative in creating a cross-platform network between the Windows and the Xbox 360, allowing multiplayer capabilities between the two. It is currently only available on the Windows Vista. The Windows Live service has also been demonstrated to perform on mobile devices and Zune and although these aren't a reality yet, the possibilities seem to be endless. Let's wait and see what Chris Early will bring to the stage.