Xbox wants its games to live well beyond the console. On Thursday, October 8, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced XP, a new division that will handle film and television, consumer products, brand partnerships, and live events for the company’s franchises. The name is a play on “Experience Points,” Sharma wrote in a memo to Xbox employees that the company also published on Xbox Wire.
XP will be led by Kayleen Walters, who moves over from Mojang to become the division’s president. According to Xbox, Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars films, products, and partnerships before joining Xbox. At Minecraft, she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees, and she was an executive producer of A Minecraft Movie. She is also a producer on the sequel.
The XP announcement splits the division into four areas. Xbox Pictures covers film, television, and other linear storytelling. Xbox Products covers licensing and merchandise. Xbox Places covers marquee broadcasts, in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based attractions. Xbox Partnerships covers sponsors, brands, and creators. Xbox says these teams already existed across the company and are now being brought together under one leader.
“Great games remain at the center of these franchises and at the heart of Xbox,” the company wrote, adding that XP will work with Xbox studios and outside partners to give fans more ways to experience the worlds they love. Xbox also credited Walters’ tenure with Minecraft growing from 350 million units sold to more than 425 million, its merchandise business reaching the global top 20, and Mojang landing the first of what it calls many theme park placements.
Walters’ move opens up the top job at Mojang. Sharma named Maria Angelidou-Smith as the new CEO of Mojang and Minecraft. She spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups and teams covering Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization, and she later led product and technology at Personio and served as chief product officer at Reddit. Sharma said Angelidou-Smith’s first priority will be learning from the teams and communities who know Minecraft best. She starts on Monday, October 19, and both she and Walters will report directly to Sharma.
The announcement comes two days after the internal town hall where Sharma told staff that Xbox’s first-party games are growing again, which RCG covered here: Xbox CEO tells staff first-party games are growing again.
