In among the litany of failures across Xbox and Microsoft in general, there are at least a few dozen undeniable epic business wins. One of those is undoubtedly Minecraft.

The blocky craft 'em up adventure already had huge momentum when Microsoft acquired it, but the firm has since turned Minecraft into a cultural powerhouse, with a merchandising and licensing empire that is often overlooked in general gaming discourse. Microsoft thinks there are more opportunities like this ... and that's why it is creating a new division under Xbox today.

"XP" is a new department under Microsoft's gaming team, led by new XP CEO Kayleen Walters, former president of Minecraft.

During Xbox's internal Town Hall meeting this week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described "four Cs" of focus for Xbox, with the session focusing mainly on Core and Content, i.e. console growth and uplifting Xbox's first and third-party content. Sharma described XP forging ahead with the Creator and Connection segments of the plan, aimed at developing other Xbox franchises to the same heights as Minecraft itself.

Microsoft put out a blog post today outlining the vision for XP, which will essentially operate as a licensing pipeline across all of Xbox's major franchises.

"Xbox Pictures" will focus on opportunities to bring Microsoft gaming franchises to the big and small screen , in the forms of movies and TV shows. Microsoft has already revealed a range of content in this area, including content for Gears of War, Wolfenstein, Diablo, among others. Big wins here include the Minecraft movie and Fallout TV show, both of which were huge successes in their own right, and vastly boosted interest in the games.

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