Xbox XP division explained: Kayleen Walters leaves Mojang to run film, merch and theme parks

What the Xbox XP division is

The Xbox XP division is a new business unit that Xbox announced on October 8, 2026, built to take its game franchises beyond the games themselves. The name is a play on experience points. It covers film and television, licensing and merchandise, sponsor and brand partnerships, and live and location-based events, and it is led by newly named President Kayleen Walters.

Matthew Ball, Xbox's chief strategy officer, introduced the division in a post on Xbox Wire titled Introducing XP. He describes it as a way of combining capabilities that already existed across various Xbox teams under one shared mission: helping franchises reach more people, build deeper connections with players and new fans, and grow fandoms worldwide. In other words, this is a reorganisation as much as a launch. Much of the work already happened somewhere inside Xbox; XP gives it one owner.

The same morning, Xbox leader Asha sent an internal message to Team XBOX, republished on Xbox Wire, that framed the idea in a single line: "Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them". Both posts are Xbox's own statements, so everything below about intent comes from the company, not from independent reporting.

The four areas inside XP

Xbox lists four investment areas. Xbox Pictures covers film, television and other linear storytelling that brings franchise worlds and characters to new audiences. Xbox Products covers licensing and merchandise, which Ball describes as fan-authentic products that let people celebrate the franchises they love.

Xbox Partnerships covers sponsors and brand partners, and Ball frames it as working with creators, brands and communities on new experiences. Xbox Places is the most unusual line item for a game publisher: marquee broadcast and in-person events, immersive experiences, attractions, theme parks and other location-based projects.

That list matters because it turns scattered licensing deals into named budgets and a named leader. A studio that wants a film option, a toy line or a theme park placement for its game now has a single division to talk to, which is how film studios have long handled their own franchises.

Who runs it: Kayleen Walters moves up from Mojang

Walters becomes President of XP after running Mojang. Xbox's announcement says she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm on Star Wars films, products and partnerships. At Minecraft she helped grow 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 of its sequel.

Ball ties her record to the numbers. He says Minecraft grew from 350 million to over 425 million units sold, that its merchandising business became one of the top 20 globally, that A Minecraft Movie had the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation and finished first at the domestic box office, and that Mojang secured the first of many theme park placements. Those are Xbox's figures, not audited ones, but they explain the choice: XP is essentially the Minecraft playbook turned into a division.

Ball is plain about the hire. "I cannot imagine a better leader for this division," he writes, and he adds that Walters understands that "the strongest franchises grow by remaining true to what and who made them special". The announcement does not give a date for her move out of Mojang.

Mojang gets a new CEO from social media, not games

Maria Angelidou-Smith joins Xbox as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft and starts on Monday, October 19, 2026. Both she and Walters report to Asha. Her background is in products for large online communities rather than in game development: nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups (used by more than 1.8 billion people monthly) plus Events, Creators, Search, Profile and Monetization, then product and technology at Personio, then Chief Product Officer at Reddit.

Asha's memo says the search for Mojang's next leader focused on someone who has built products for large communities, is deeply technical, and understands how creators, product, technology and monetization fit together. It also notes that Mojang already has a game development team. That wording tells you what the job is: running Minecraft as a platform with creators and a marketplace, not designing the next block.

The memo is careful about expectations: "Her first priority will be learning from the teams and communities who know Minecraft best." Expect a listening period before any visible change, and treat early commentary about her plans, including this article's, as inference until she says something herself.

Why Xbox is doing this now

The memo places the appointments inside what Asha calls the four Cs strategy, discussed at a recent town hall. Walters's job supports the Creator and Connection pillars, and the memo says the work on Core and Content had already been shared. Ball's ambition, stated in the XP post, is for Xbox to be the number one entertainment company in the world, which is a goal measured in audience and revenue beyond console sales.

Our read, and it is only a read: the games business has become expensive and slow, while a successful franchise can earn from screens, shelves and venues for years between releases. Xbox owns a large catalogue, and putting a Minecraft-proven executive over it signals that it wants those catalogue revenues to be managed deliberately rather than deal by deal.

What Xbox has not said

The XP post gives no launch dates, pricing, budgets, headcount or slate of projects. It names no new film or series, no theme park partner beyond the Mojang placements mentioned, and no timetable for Walters's transition. It also does not say whether the existing Minecraft sequel plans change under the new structure.

For players, nothing in either post changes how Xbox games are made, priced or released, and the announcement says great games remain central to its franchises and that XP will work with creative teams across Xbox studios and with trusted partners. The practical test comes later: the first XP film, product line or attraction announcement will show how much of the plan is real. We will report those when Xbox confirms them.