Xbox appoints new leaders for Mojang and franchise experiences

• XP will focus on film, merchandise, brand partnerships and location-based experiences.
• Walters helped grow Minecraft consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business.
• Angelidou-Smith previously held senior product roles at Meta, Personio and Reddit.

Xbox has appointed Kayleen Walters as president of XP, a new division focused on expanding its franchises beyond games.

The company has also tapped Maria Angelidou-Smith as its new CEO of Mojang and Minecraft.

The appointments were announced by Xbox leadership as part of its plans around Creator and Connection. Both executives will report directly to Xbox leadership.

Walters moves from Mojang, where she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees. 

She also served as executive producer of A Minecraft Movie and is producing its sequel. Before joining Xbox, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm, helping guide Star Wars across films, products and partnerships.

Beyond games

Angelidou-Smith will take over Mojang on October 19th. She brings experience from Meta, where she led Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people monthly, alongside work across events, creators, search and monetisation.

She later led product and technology at Personio and served as chief product officer at Reddit. Xbox said her experience building products for large communities would support Minecraft’s continued development.

XP, named after “Experience Points”, will focus on four areas: film and television adaptations, licensing and merchandise, sponsorships and brand partnerships, and live 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," said Xbox.