Xbox, currently in the midst of several mass layoffs as part of a plan to let go a final total of 3,200 people, has announced a new arm of its company that is firmly aimed at making more money from its hit game series through licensing deals. That probably means more stuff along the lines of the recent lucrative Minecraft movie and the Fallout TV show, but apparently not enough money to convince them that their game-making business didn’t need to die down. Meanwhile, Minecraft developers Mojang have a new boss who previously spent a decade working on Facebook at Meta.
The new division, led by former Mojang president Kayleen Walters, “brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams across XBOX for years,” Matthew Ball, Xbox’s chief strategy officer, wrote in a statement. announcement message. “Great games remain at the center of these franchises and at the heart of Xbox,” he writes. “XP will team up with the best creative minds across our studios, along with trusted partners, to build on this foundation and create more ways for people to discover the worlds they love.”
The new division focuses on four areas: Xbox Pictures (film and television adaptations), Xbox Products (merch), Xbox Places (live events and theme park attractions), and Xbox Partnerships (sponsorships and other collaborations with YouTubers and brands like).
Xbox boss Asha Sharma previously told the New York Times, while insisting that Microsoft was not currently looking to sell Xbox, that management would “look at the right partnerships” and “the right operating model” to set Xbox up for success in the future. Making more money on a regular basis from tentpole series like Fallout and Minecraft is the current strategy, and so it makes sense that the company would want to put more effort into licensing all related products, while also taking steps like sticking Obsidian on a new Fallout game under Bethesda’s watch.
There’s an argument that the studios and game series Xbox left in the dust as part of this job-loss-heavy shift could have been more valuable if Microsoft had pushed harder on licensing sooner. Rather than settling for a top-of-the-top movie or TV show, Psychonauts or South of Midnight might have been more successful if XP had actively pitched Hollywood and streaming services to do something with Double Fine or Compulsion.
In a separate post released alongside the XP announcement, Sharma herself revealed Walters’ replacement as head of Minecraft developers Mojang. Maria Angelidou-Smith will take over as CEO of Blockville, after spending nearly a decade at Meta working on Facebook’s Groups, Events, Creators, Search, Profile and Monetization. Add to that his time running the product divisions of HR software company Personio and Reddit, and you get a journey that resembles that of Sharma’s – lots of technological leadership, nothing in terms of experience in the video game industry.
“Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply,” Sharma wrote of the hire. “We were looking for someone who has built products for large-scale communities, is deeply technical, and understands how creators, products, technology, and monetization come together.”
So moving further in the same direction as Xbox, which shouldn’t distract from the human cost of their cuts. Microsoft is also still the subject of a BDS movement boycott due to its alleged ties to the Israeli military.
