Xbox Unveils XP Entertainment Division to Produce Movies, TV, and More

Xbox has launched a new entertainment division called XP, focused on TV, movies, and beyond. The division will be led by Kayleen Walters, a Lucasfilm veteran who most recently served as president of Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, where she also executive produced last year's A Minecraft Movie.

XP encompasses four "areas of investment": Xbox Pictures, Xbox Products, Xbox Partnerships, and Xbox Places. Microsoft stated that XP was created to help Xbox become the world's leading entertainment and gaming company, which requires expanding its major franchises beyond video games. However, XP is not a production company; instead, Microsoft aims to find the right partners to collaborate across film, TV, physical experiences, and consumer products.

Microsoft has already achieved notable success in movies and TV, with Warner Bros.' A Minecraft Movie breaking box office records and Amazon's Fallout TV series setting records for Prime Video. Upcoming Xbox adaptations include the movie sequel Minecraft Squared, Fallout Season 3, a Call of Duty film with Peter Berg and Taylor Sheridan, and a Diablo animated series with Netflix. Microsoft's deal for Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor Physint includes film and TV rights, so an adaptation is expected eventually.

XP also focuses on live events, where Xbox has already seen success. Blizzard's BlizzCon featured several major announcements, drawing 35,000 attendees to the physical event in Anaheim, California, and 12.5 million viewers at home. The latest Minecraft Live, which announced the first new Minecraft dimension in 14 years, reached over 144 million people.

Additionally, Microsoft highlighted partnerships such as Gears of War's collaboration with WWE and Xbox's line of Ikea furniture. A Minecraft theme park is scheduled to open next year.

"XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world's most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself," Walters said. "Fans don't just play our franchises. They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping Xbox franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways."

"XP is a play on 'Experience Points' and formalizes four investment areas for us: Xbox Pictures for film and television adaptations; Xbox Products for licensing and merchandise; Xbox Partnerships for sponsors and brand partners; and Xbox Places for our marquee broadcast and in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote in a company-wide memo also posted to Xbox Wire.

"Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences with the industry without losing what made people care about the franchise in the first place."

Microsoft noted the uplift its video games can get when movies and shows do well. For example, Fallout games on Game Pass saw a 5x increase in hours played during Fallout Season 1. Minecraft, meanwhile, saw over a 75% increase in weekly active users year-over-year since the movie released (as of April 30, 2026).

If this sounds familiar, it's because Microsoft has tried this before. In 2012 (back in the Xbox 360 era!), Microsoft announced Xbox Entertainment Studios with the aim of producing TV shows that would air directly on Xbox consoles. XES revealed plans for shows based on Gears of War, Fable, Forza, and State of Decay — not to mention the original version of the Halo TV show announced at E3 by Steven Spielberg, who was set to executive produce. They even planned an unscripted street-soccer drama called Every Street United. The entire XES effort lasted just two years before being shut down as the Xbox One's "all in one" message failed to resonate with gamers following its reveal in 2013.

As part of these changes, Mojang has a new boss. Maria Angelidou-Smith, who joins Xbox as CEO of Mojang, spent nearly a decade at Meta working on Facebook Groups before stints at Personio and Reddit, where she was Chief Product Officer. "She has built products used by billions of people and led product and engineering organizations through significant growth and change," Sharma said.

"She will bring that experience to Mojang while learning from the people who know Minecraft best. Her first order of business is for her to learn from the teams and communities that make Minecraft so special."

Minecraft is, of course, one of the big Xbox franchises the company is doubling down on amid Sharma's ongoing "Reset," which has seen nearly 2,000 staff cut from the gaming business so far this financial year. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, having sold over 425 million copies. Its significant merchandising business became one of the top 20 globally.