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: “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. 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.
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. 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.
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