More big news out of Xbox today: A new division called Xbox XP will take the lead on "film and television, consumer products, strategic partnerships, and live experiences," with a focus "on how people experience our franchises beyond the games themselves."
As detailed on today's announcement, here's what that breaks down to:
- XBOX PICTURES: Bringing our worlds and characters to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling.
- XBOX PRODUCTS: Creating products that are authentic to the fandom that allow fans to celebrate and express the franchises they love.
- XBOX PLACES: Bringing communities together through live events, immersive experiences, attractions, broadcasts, and destinations.
- XBOX PARTNERSHIPS: Working with creators, brands, and communities to develop new experiences, sponsorships, and brand partnerships.
Xbox XP will be headed by Kayleen Walters, who previously spent a couple years as president of Minecraft studio Mojang and before that spent close to a decade in different brand and "franchise development" roles at Microsoft. Prior to that she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm, finishing her time there as vice president of franchise marketing and integrated planning.
"XP is a play on 'experience points'," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma helpfully explained in a separate internal email, "and formalizes four investment areas for us: 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."
Well, what to make of this, eh? It sounds ambitious, superficially at least, although what it adds up to in practice remains to be seen: It's possible that Xbox XP represents more of a reshuffling of pre-existing departments and efforts already in the works, with a new executive atop the org chart to put some extra punch in the announcement.
But it comes while Xbox is in the midst of laying off thousands of people who make the actual games that serve as the foundation of these franchises. Make of that what you will, but for myself, kicking off a whole new (and very expensive-sounding) Xbox division while Ninja Theory is bleeding out on the floor is not a great look. It also stands in rather sharp contrast to what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the "streamlining" of Xbox. This is streamlining?
A Minecraft Movie was a massive hit and I have no doubt the sequel will be too, and it's understandable that Microsoft would want a bigger piece of that action. But how many other franchises really share that space? Is anyone particularly jazzed for the Modern Warfare movie in development, or disappointed that the Halo TV series (Master Chief had sex) was cancelled? WoW nostalgia is running hot these days, but hot enough to draw people to theaters or drive subscriptions to Prime? I don't see it.
Movies and TV are the big eye-catcher here, but the other three "investment areas"—products, partnerships, and places—are potentially more impactful on the actual videogame front. I'm particularly struck by the image of BlizzCon in the Xbox XP announcement: BlizzCon is easily the most studio-centric major gaming convention in existence (it's literally the Blizzard Convention), but it's not too hard to imagine a branding shift there—'Xbox BlizzCon,' maybe—and an expansion into non-Blizzard games. Blizzard is Activision, after all, and Activision is Xbox. What sort of immediate practical impact that would have on the games we play or events we attend is debatable, but the loss of studio culture is a loss for gaming culture.
There's a lot of wait-and-see here, in other words, but those of you with long memories may know that this isn't Xbox's first attempt to bust into the glitzy world of showbiz: In 2012, it launched Xbox Entertainment Studios, a film and television production company intended to develop "interactive TV" content for the Xbox 360. It was shuttered in 2014.
