Xbox launches XP to take Minecraft, Fallout and other games beyond the console
Microsoft's Xbox is launching XP, a new division built to carry its game franchises onto film and television screens, shop shelves and live stages.
The announcement was reported by Deadline on 8 October 2026. XP is short for experience points, the points players earn for progress inside games.
The division has four parts. Xbox Pictures will handle film and television adaptations, meaning screen versions of games. Xbox Products will handle licensing and merchandise, meaning toys, clothes and other tie-ins made by outside companies under deal. Xbox Partnerships will work with sponsors and brand partners. Xbox Places will cover broadcast and in-person events.
Kayleen Walters, a former Lucasfilm executive, has been named president of XP. Walters was an executive producer of A Minecraft Movie and is a producer on its sequel, which is currently in production.
A second leadership change sits alongside the launch. Maria Angelidou-Smith is joining Xbox as chief executive of Mojang and Minecraft after nearly a decade at Meta. Mojang is the Stockholm-based studio behind Minecraft, which Microsoft owns.
Xbox is pointing to two recent results to explain the timing. Fallout titles on Xbox Game Pass, its subscription library of games, recorded a fivefold increase in hours played during the first season of Fallout on Prime Video. Minecraft recorded a rise of more than 75% in weekly active users year on year since the release of the movie in spring 2025.
Walters arrives with a commercial track record inside the business. She helped grow Xbox's consumer products arm into a multi-billion-dollar business with more than 250 licences, covering deals that let other firms make Xbox-themed goods.
Official updates will sit on Xbox Wire, the company's news site, which hosts an XP news section. It lists an item titled "Introducing XP" marked as a two-minute read, alongside a three-minute read on the new leadership appointments, according to Xbox Wire.
For fans, this means more of the structure is now in one place. Games stay games. Films, shirts, sponsors and fan events get their own teams.
