XP, or “Experience Points”, is the latest development to come out of the company’s tumultuous restructuring phase, and will be helmed by current Mojang (Minecraft) president Kayleen Walters, with Maria Angelidou-Smith boarding Mojang as its new CEO. Walters is old hat at this corporate-synergistic hullabaloo: She’s the former vice president of franchise marketing and integrated planning at Lucasfilm and served as an executive producer on A Minecraft Movie and its upcoming sequel. With Prime Video’s Fallout adaptation entering its third season and Peter Berg and Taylor Sheridan seemingly quite serious about making their Call Of Duty movie—not to mention Netflix’s announced Diablo animated series and Kojima’s Physint “already looking toward film and TV adaptation opportunities” (per an internal memo sent out by Sharma)—Sharma’s Xbox is making an aggressive push into a franchise arena similar to that of Marvel Comics or LEGO. However, THR stresses that XP’s function won’t be as a production studio, but a division that pairs production studios with their game franchises and IP.
Walters took the lead in announcing XP to the company. “XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world’s most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself,” she wrote in a company email. “Fans don’t just play our franchises. They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping Xbox franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways.”
“XP is a play on ‘Experience Points’ and formalizes four investment areas for us,” Sharma wrote in the memo. “XBOX PICTURES for film and television adaptations; XBOX PRODUCTS for licensing and merchandise; XBOX PARTNERSHIPS for sponsors and brand partners; and XBOX PLACES for our marquee broadcast and in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences. Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences with the industry without losing what made people care about the franchise in the first place.”
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