Following the massive success of A Minecraft Movie, Xbox appears to be doubling down on its Hollywood ambitions.
The video game giant announced Thursday that it is launching a new division called XP, a play on the gaming term “experience points,” that brings its various entertainment businesses outside of gaming under one roof.
Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball said in a blog post that the new division is part of the company’s goal to become the number one entertainment company in the world.
“It brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at XBOX for years and aligns them behind a shared mission: helping our franchises reach more people, create deeper connections with players and new fans, and unlock new opportunities for these fandoms to grow around the world,” Ball wrote.
The new division will focus on four areas: film and TV adaptations, licensing and merchandise, live experiences such as events and theme park attractions, and partnerships with brands and creators.
The announcement comes just three months after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees that Microsoft’s struggling video game business needed a major “reset.”
In a July memo, Sharma announced plans to cut approximately 3,200 jobs throughout fiscal year 2027, calling the overhaul the “most significant restructure in XBOX history.” She also announced that four game studios would leave Xbox and that the CEO of Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, would begin reporting directly to her.
Now, Sharma is putting Mojang’s former CEO, Kayleen Walters, in charge of XP. Walters was also an executive producer on A Minecraft Movie, which grossed more than $960 million worldwide last year.
Walters will be replaced at Mojang by Maria Angelidou-Smith, who previously served as chief product officer at Reddit.
Xbox already has a pretty steady pipeline of film and TV projects in the works. They include Minecraft Squared, the sequel to A Minecraft Movie, a third season of Prime Video’s Fallout series, and an upcoming Call of Duty movie from Paramount, with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan co-writing the script.
Over at Netflix, a live-action Gears of War movie and an animated Diablo series are also in development.
While nothing has been announced yet, Xbox also has the TV and film rights for Hideo Kojima’s new project PHYSINT.
Beyond Hollywood, a new Minecraft-themed area is set to open at Chessington World of Adventures near London in 2027. Meanwhile, Xbox recently partnered with IKEA on a collection of gaming-inspired furniture.
The company’s live events are also doing pretty well. Blizzard’s annual gaming convention, BlizzCon, drew around 35,000 attendees this year, while its livestreams attracted roughly 12.5 million viewers. And Xbox says that the most recent Minecraft Live reached more than 144 million people.
While video game adaptations have had mixed results over the years, Xbox seems to believe they will become a bigger part of its business. Whether that strategy actually pays off remains to be seen.
