King and Mojang to report directly to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma after company "reset"

• King and Mojang will now report directly to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.
• King president Todd Green was previously reporting to EVP and chief content officer for Microsoft Gaming Matt Booty.

Candy Crush maker King and Minecraft’s Mojang will now report directly to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma as part of major company-wide restructuring at Xbox.

The move comes as part of what CEO Asha Sharma calls a "reset" of the business that will see it divest five studios and lay off 3,200 staff.

Both King and Mojang were highlighted for increasingly becoming platforms and as the company's "largest by monthly active players". Geographically and demographically, they bring in different audiences compared to Xbox, Sharma said.

King’s flagship Candy Crush Saga continues to rank among the top-grossing mobile games globally, even 14 years after release.

In 2025 it remained among mobile's top 10 highest earners, with almost $1.6 billion made between Google Play and the App Store. It also remained in the top 10 during H1 2026, making another $765.1 million by AppMagic estimates.

Mojang’s Minecraft, meanwhile, ranks among the best-selling games in history, appearing across platforms for the past 15 years. On mobile, it made $159.1m last year with a bump during A Minecraft Movie’s successful theatrical run.

We spoke with King president Todd Green this spring about the company’s interaction with Microsoft. At the time, Green was reporting to EVP and chief content officer for Microsoft Gaming Matt Booty, helping Microsoft’s teams develop and deepen their understanding of King - and vice versa.

PocketGamer.biz has reached out to King for comment on any potential layoffs impacting the company.

Mass layoffs

Of the 3,200 layoffs announced by Xbox yesterday, 1,600 have taken place immediately, while another 1,600 jobs are set to be cut over the next year.

Microsoft’s various games studios like Xbox, Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda/ZeniMax, King and Mojang were all named in a statement by Sharma, but planned changes will "vary in size" from studio to studio.

Reductions were announced for Xbox and “across other units". In some cases, investment will shift to focus on higher-priority projects.

"None of our first-party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions," Sharma claimed, though Xbox plans to divest five studios which had already announced games.