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Xbox is launching a new division that will house its film and television, consumer products, strategic partnerships and live experiences businesses.
Named XP (a play on “experience points” in gamer lingo), the entertainment
division will be led by Kayleen Walters, the current president of Xbox’s “Minecraft” studio Mojang and executive producer of “A Minecraft Movie,” who will now shift into the role of president of XP.
Per Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, at XP, Walters will lead a team focused on building out entertainment and experiences based on Xbox’s video game franchises, including “Minecraft,” “Call of Duty,” “Fallout,” “Warcraft,” “Gears of War,” “Candy Crush,” “Diablo,” “Forza,” “The Elder Scrolls” and “Halo.”
According to Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball, the new vision “brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at Xbox for years and aligns them behind a shared mission: helping our franchises reach more people, create deeper connections with players and new fans, and unlock new opportunities for these fandoms to grow around the world.”
As outlined by Ball in a memo to staff Thursday, XP’s four investment areas include:
- XBOX PICTURES: Bringing our worlds and characters to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling.
- XBOX PRODUCTS: Creating products that are authentic to the fandom that allow fans to celebrate and express the franchises they love.
- XBOX PLACES: Bringing communities together through live events, immersive experiences, attractions, broadcasts, and destinations.
- XBOX PARTNERSHIPS: Working with creators, brands, and communities to develop new experiences, sponsorships, and brand partnerships.
“XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world’s most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself. Fans don’t just play our franchises,” Walters said in a memo Thursday. “They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping Xbox franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways.”
A 13 year veteran of Lucasfilm, Walters helped grow and relaunch one of the most influential franchises in history. During her time at Mojang, “Minecraft” has grown from 350 million units sold to over 425 million and Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” had the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation and hit No. 1 at the domestic box offices. On the heels of that success, Walters’ team at Mojang secured a deal for the first of several planned Minecraft theme parks.
As Walters moves into her new role as president of Xbox’s XP division, Sharma has named Meta alum Maria Angelidou-Smith as Walters successor as CEO of “Minecraft” studio Mojang. Angelidou-Smith most recently served as chief product officer at Reddit.
“Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment,” Sharma said. “Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around ‘Minecraft.’ The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.”
Along with Xbox’s TV and film adaptations like “A Minecraft Movie” and Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series, and upcoming projects including the “Diablo” animated series, the “Call of Duty” movie in the works at Paramount, and the film and TV rights for Hideo Kojima’s next game, “Physint,” Sharma says Xbox is focused on expanding its entertainment business beyond the capabilities of a traditional Hollywood studio into off-screen entertainment.
Xbox recently hosted an expanded version of BlizzCon (a longtime Blizzard Entertainment fan convention), marking the return of that two-day event after three years off, and launched a WWE takeover themed around new game “Gears of War: E-Day.”
See below for Sharma’s full memo announcing the XP division to Xbox staff, which was published on the Xbox Wire Thursday.
Team,
At Town Hall on Tuesday, I talked about the four Cs and the choices we are making to put them into practice. You’ve seen a lot of our work on Core and Content. Today I want to share two leadership appointments supporting Creator and Connection. Kayleen Walters will transition from her role as President of Mojang to President of XP, a new XBOX division focused on how people experience our franchises beyond the games themselves, and Maria Angelidou-Smith will join XBOX as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft.
Kayleen has spent her career building entertainment franchises. Before XBOX, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm helping guide Star Wars across films, products, and partnerships. At Minecraft, she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees and was Executive Producer of A Minecraft Movie, the biggest film in the U.S. last year and a top-five release worldwide. She is also a producer of the sequel.
XP is a play on “Experience Points” and formalizes four investment areas for us: XBOX PICTURES for film and television adaptations; XBOX PRODUCTS for licensing and merchandise; XBOX PARTNERSHIPS for sponsors and brand partners; and XBOX PLACES for our marquee broadcast and in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences. Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences with the industry without losing what made people care about the franchise in the first place.
Kayleen’s move also gave us time to think carefully about what Mojang needs in its next leader.
Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment. Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around Minecraft. The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.
Maria brings a rare combination of those experiences. She spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, as well as Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio and served as Chief Product Officer at Reddit, another of the world’s largest community platforms. She has built products used by billions of people and led product and engineering organizations through significant growth and change.
She will bring that experience to Mojang while learning from the people who know Minecraft best. Her first order of business is for her to learn from the teams and communities that make Minecraft so special.
I’ll be in Stockholm next week to spend time with the team and talk through the transition in person. Maria starts Monday, October 19, at the Bear Creek office.
Please join me in congratulating Kayleen and welcoming Maria to XBOX!
Asha
