Xbox creates XP division to push its games into film and theme parks, and swaps out Mojang's boss

Kayleen Walters leaves Mojang to lead Xbox's new film, products and experiences division, while former Reddit exec Maria Angelidou-Smith takes over Minecraft starting October 19.

Xbox announced on Thursday the creation of a new division called XP, with one clear goal: pushing its franchises well beyond the controller in your hands. Film, TV, licensed merchandise, theme parks and live events all land under one umbrella, named with an obvious nod to anyone who has ever leveled up: XP, as in experience points.

The structure splits into four pillars. Xbox Pictures handles film and television adaptations of the company's franchises. Xbox Products covers licensed merchandise. Xbox Partnerships manages brand deals and sponsorships. Xbox Places runs live events, theme parks and physical experiences. The announcement carries the signature of Matthew Ball, Xbox's chief strategy officer, who called the division's new president the ideal leader to run it.

That president is Kayleen Walters, who until last week was running Mojang and, by extension, Minecraft. Before that, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars, so turning an entertainment franchise into a full-blown product empire is already in her résumé. At Mojang, she watched Minecraft grow from 350 million to more than 425 million copies sold and helped its merchandise business crack the top 20 globally. She also executive-produced 'A Minecraft Movie' and will produce its sequel, due in July 2027.

With Walters gone, Mojang gets a new face: Maria Angelidou-Smith takes over as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft starting Monday, October 19. She doesn't come from inside the games industry. She spent nearly a decade at Meta leading areas like Facebook Groups and Events, later led product and technology at Personio, and most recently served as chief product officer at Reddit. Both she and Walters will report directly to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

The timing stands out because Xbox hasn't had an easy year: wave after wave of layoffs, studios sold off or shut down, and Sharma's own public talk about 'resetting' a structure she called unhealthy. Standing up a brand new division for movies, theme parks and merchandise right after all that is a bet that the long-term money in these franchises lives outside the games themselves, not just inside them.

If all you care about is whether the next Minecraft or the next Halo turns out good, none of this moves the needle today. But it's worth watching whether this push into film and theme parks starts competing for budget with the teams actually keeping the games running, because that's exactly the kind of priority call that decides whether a franchise ages well or just becomes a T-shirt brand.