Xbox formalized XP on October 8 as the unit that owns everything around the games, not the games themselves.
The name is short for Experience Points. Chief strategy officer Matthew Ball announced it on Xbox Wire the same morning Asha Sharma emailed the company.
It is a consolidation, not a new studio.
Film, merch, live events, and brand deals already existed across Xbox teams.
XP pulls them into one division so franchises can be pitched and staffed the same way Nintendo and Sony already do with movies and parks.
Hollywood Reporter’s read is that XP is not a production company.
It matches Xbox IP with outside studios and partners.
Who runs it.
Kayleen Walters moves from president of Mojang to president of XP.
She spent about 13 years at Lucasfilm, then ran franchise development at Microsoft, and was an executive producer on A Minecraft Movie.
Under her, Minecraft went from about 350 million units sold to over 425 million, its merch business ranked in the global top 20, and the film had the biggest opening weekend of any game adaptation and finished number one domestically.
Maria Angelidou-Smith, Reddit’s chief product officer and a former Facebook executive, takes over Mojang.
She starts October 19. Reporting differs on her title (president in some accounts, CEO in others).
Four investment areas:
- Xbox Pictures covers film, TV, and other linear storytelling.
- Xbox Products covers licensing and merch meant to stay close to the fandom.
- Xbox Places covers live events, broadcasts, attractions, and theme parks.
- Xbox Partnerships covers sponsors, brands, and creator deals.
What already sits under it.
Fallout season 3 is in the works at Amazon Prime Video.
The first two seasons lifted back-catalog sales and Fallout Shelter players.
A Minecraft Movie sequel is in production, with Walters also producing it.
A Call of Duty film from Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg is in development.
A Diablo animated series is set for Netflix.
Minecraft theme parks in the US and UK represent more than £85 million of Mojang and Xbox investment and are aimed at opening between 2026 and 2027.
Halo is the cautionary case: two seasons on Paramount+, cancelled in 2024.
Hideo Kojima’s PHYSINT is already being looked at for film and TV options.
Franchises Ball and Walters have named as the slate to grow this way include Call of Duty, Fallout, Warcraft, Gears of War, Candy Crush, Diablo, Forza, The Elder Scrolls, Halo, and Minecraft.
Ball’s line in the announcement is that great games stay at the center, and XP’s job is more ways to experience those worlds.
No new greenlights were announced with the org chart.
