Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the formation of a new Xbox entertainment division dubbed XP, which will gather all of the company’s film and television adaptations of games.

The division, headed by former Mojang president Kayleen Walters, a former Lucasfilm leader who was the executive producer of A Minecraft Movie, which generated $960 million at the box office for Warner Bros. last year. It will also include consumer products, partnerships, and live experiences such as theme parks.

XP will help Xbox franchises reach fans beyond gameplay through film and television adaptations, consumer products, partnerships, and live experiences. And XP, which is of course short for the gaming term Experience Points, will bring expert capabilities across Microsoft’s entertainment work under a unified structure. 

It’s an exciting new direction for Microsoft to take advantage of the boom in game-related movies and TV shows, but it’s also a sharp contrast to layoffs at the Xbox game divisions, which started in June and are expected to hit 3,200 jobs.

Some of us remember back to the bad old days of 2012, when Microsoft created Xbox Entertainment Studios, which ended in failure and layoffs in Hollywood. That included an abortive Halo film from Steven Spielberg. There have also been more recent painful missteps, like the cancellation of the Halo television show on Paramount+ after just two seasons.

To that, Xbox said, “XP is about finding the right creative partners. It is not a production company.

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