Xbox forms XP, a division for film, TV, merchandise and theme parks, and gives Mojang a new CEO

Mojang president Kayleen Walters will lead XP, which covers everything Xbox franchises do outside games. Former Reddit product chief Maria Angelidou-Smith takes over Mojang and Minecraft on 19 Octo...

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Xbox has set up a new division called XP to handle everything its franchises do outside of games: film and television, merchandise, brand deals and live events. Kayleen Walters, until now president of Mojang, will run it, and Maria Angelidou-Smith, formerly chief product officer at Reddit, replaces her as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced both moves in an email to staff on 8 October, which Xbox published on Xbox Wire. Both will report to her.

Sharma wrote that XP "is a play on 'Experience Points'". It came two days after the company town hall at which, she said, she talked about "the four Cs". XP falls under two of them, Creator and Connection.

Four pillars

According to a separate Xbox Wire post signed by chief strategy officer Matthew Ball, the division formalises four investment areas, each named to fit the XP initials.

Xbox Pictures covers film, television and "other forms of linear storytelling". Xbox Products handles licensing and merchandise. Xbox Places takes in live events, broadcasts and attractions, and in Sharma's words "theme parks, and other location-based experiences". Xbox Partnerships deals with creators, sponsors and brand partners.

Ball's post says XP "brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at XBOX for years", and that "great games remain at the center of these franchises". It opens with the line "Our ambition at XBOX is to be the number one entertainment company in the world."

Who is running it

Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm before Xbox. Sharma's email credits her with growing Minecraft consumer products into "a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees", and she was executive producer of A Minecraft Movie and is a producer on the sequel. Ball's post adds that Minecraft sales grew from 350 million to over 425 million units during her time at Mojang.

Angelidou-Smith spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups, then ran product and technology at Personio before Reddit. Sharma said her first priority would be "learning from the teams and communities who know Minecraft best". She starts on Monday, 19 October.

The timing is pointed. PocketGamer.biz notes XP arrives in the middle of Xbox's restructuring, after 1,600 job cuts announced in July and 268 more last month, and Game Developer ties it to the new leadership's stated focus on big franchises and transmedia. For smaller studios that have left Xbox this year, the contrast is stark: the company is shrinking its game making while building a division for films, merchandise and theme parks.

Sources

Image: Xbox

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