XBOX is creating a new division called XP, and leading it is Kayleen Walters, who was named head of Mojang Studios in February 2025. In an email to employees this morning, XBOX CEO Asha Sharma confirmed Walters as president of XP and named former Reddit chief product officer Maria Angelidou-Smith as the new CEO of Mojang and Minecraft. The two appointments tie into the “four Cs” Sharma outlined at a town hall on Tuesday, with XP and Mojang supporting Creator and Connection after XBOX’s recent work on Core and Content.
As for XP itself, the name is a play on “Experience Points,” and the division focuses on how people experience XBOX franchises beyond the games themselves. It formalizes four investment areas: XBOX PICTURES for film and television, XBOX PRODUCTS for licensing and merchandise, XBOX PARTNERSHIPS for sponsors and brand partners, and XBOX PLACES for broadcasts, live events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences. In a separate post, chief strategy officer Matthew Ball, who was hired in May, said XP brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at XBOX for years. He also said XBOX’s ambition is “to be the number one entertainment company in the world.” XBOX already runs the XBOX Game Studios Shop for merchandise and is in the middle of its 25th anniversary FanFest tour.
Before joining XBOX, Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm helping guide Star Wars across films, products, and partnerships. At Minecraft, she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees. Ball added that Minecraft went from 350 million units sold to over 425 million during her tenure, and that Mojang secured its first theme park placement.
Walters was also executive producer on A Minecraft Movie, which Sharma called the biggest film in the U.S. last year, and she’s a producer on the sequel, A Minecraft Movie Squared, which opens July 23, 2027. As I mentioned when Minecraft Live revealed the sequel’s title, I wasn’t sold on the first movie’s realistic art direction when the teaser debuted. It went on to make nearly $961 million worldwide, though, so what do I know.
Angelidou-Smith spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, along with Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio before becoming chief product officer at Reddit. Sharma said Mojang already has a game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply, so XBOX looked for someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale. Angelidou-Smith starts on Monday, October 19, and her first priority will be learning from the teams and communities who know Minecraft best. Both she and Walters report directly to Sharma, whose full email is available on XBOX Wire.
