Electronic Arts has confirmed reports that Kathy Vrabeck, head of the EA Casual label, has resigned.

Vrabeck was only announced to be joining EA in June last year, when the company said it would restructuring into four labels: EA Casual, The Sims, EA Games and EA Sports.

As a result of Vrabeck's resignation, The Sims label will be merged with the Casual label.

An EA rep told Edge in an e-mail, "We’ve learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic."

The rep added, "EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games--development and marketing--into other divisions of our business.

"We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership and Casual marketing organization with The Sims Label to be a new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics."

Word of Vrabeck's departure first broke on the games site GameDaily.

The news follows EA's move to lay off 6 percent of its workforce, or about 600 workers.

Prior to EA, Vrabeck had worked at Activision as president of publishing before she quit in September 2005.

EA's rep said more structural are planned. "In the days and weeks ahead, we will make further announcements on the reporting structure for the other businesses in the Casual Label including EA Mobile, Pogo, Media Sales and Online Casual Initiatives.

"Those businesses remain growth priorities for EA and deserve strong support in a group that will compliment their objectives."