On October 8, 2026, Microsoft announced a new division called Xbox XP, which will develop brands like Minecraft beyond games themselves: in movies, TV shows, licensed products and theme parks. It will be led by Kayleen Walters, previously the CEO of Mojang Studios, and starting October 19 her spot at the studio behind Minecraft will be filled by Maria Angelidou-Smith, formerly Chief Product Officer at Reddit.

Four pillars of the new division

The name XP refers to "experience points," familiar from games. As Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball explained on XBOX Wire, the division rests on four pillars: Xbox Pictures (movies and TV), Xbox Products (merchandising and licensing), Xbox Places (live events, theme parks and other in-person experiences) and Xbox Partnerships (collaborations with creators and brands).

Xbox president Asha Sharma wrote in an internal email to employees, quoted by Deadline, that "our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences in partnership with the whole industry, without losing what made people love a given brand." On XBOX Wire, Ball added that "our ambition at Xbox is to be the number one entertainment company in the world," while stressing that "games remain at the center of these franchises and at the heart of Xbox."

Kayleen Walters and Minecraft's success beyond the game

Putting Walters in charge of XP is no accident. Before joining Mojang, she spent more than a decade at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars, and at Minecraft she served as an executive producer of the hit 2025 film "A Minecraft Movie." According to figures cited on XBOX Wire, under her leadership the game's sales grew from 350 million to more than 425 million copies sold, and Minecraft's licensed products business climbed into the world's top twenty merchandising brands.

As XBOX Wire reports, "A Minecraft Movie" had the best opening weekend at the box office of any video game adaptation and for a time topped the domestic box office charts in the United States. According to GameBastion, a sequel is already in the works, tentatively called "Minecraft Squared," and Walters is expected to work on it in her new role. Mojang has also signed its first deals for permanent themed attractions in amusement parks, with more locations promised in the future.

A change at the top of Mojang Studios

Starting October 19, Maria Angelidou-Smith becomes CEO of Mojang Studios and the Minecraft brand. As TheWrap found, she spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she was responsible for Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people a month, among other things, as well as events, creators, search and monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio, and right before taking the job at Mojang she was Chief Product Officer at Reddit.

Both executives, Walters and Angelidou-Smith, will report directly to Xbox head Asha Sharma. This setup is meant to keep the development of Minecraft as a game organizationally separate from the movie, TV and park projects that XP is now taking over, although the two structures are expected to work closely together on joint campaigns and launches.

Other brands in XP's portfolio

Minecraft is the most profitable example in the new division's portfolio, but not the only one. According to Gamer Social Club, XP will also work on the presence of brands such as Fallout (whose Amazon series broke viewership records on Prime Video), Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, Warcraft, Diablo and The Elder Scrolls. Not all of these projects have succeeded so far: the "Halo" series is often cited as an example of a failed adaptation, which is supposed to be an extra lesson for the new division as it plans future productions.

For Polish players, the announcement mainly confirms that Minecraft remains Microsoft's main trump card in the company's entertainment strategy, and that more movie, TV and park projects will keep coming regularly. The change in the CEO seat at Mojang shouldn't directly affect the development of the game itself: ongoing work on updates, including the current snapshots test of the winter drop with ice caves, is run by a separate development team that is independent of changes in corporate leadership.

Sources