Products and events will also be part of XP’s strategy.
Microsoft
A new division of Xbox called XP will focus on growing the fanbases of its various gaming properties through TV, film, products and events. Announced in a blog post written by Xbox’s Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball, XP will seemingly play a significant role in the company’s plan to become “the number one entertainment company in the world,” and one that has set the lofty ambition of entertaining one billion people each and every day.
Microsoft hasn’t paired this news with the announcement of any new movies or globetrotting concerts, but we do have a pretty good idea of how the new games-adjacent division will function. XP will be tasked with bringing Xbox’s “worlds and characters to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling,” as well as appealing to the existing Xbox community through “authentic” product launches, live events and attractions. The division will also seek to forge partnerships with creators and brands.
XP will be headed up by Kayleen Walters, who worked at Lucasfilm for 13 years before joining Microsoft and eventually becoming president of Minecraft studio Mojang. Walters also served as an executive producer on last year’s box office-smashing (and notably not terrible) A Minecraft Movie, and is named as a producer on the upcoming sequel. A Minecraft theme park is set to open its doors in the UK next year, the promotion of which presumably now also falls within XP’s remit.
Microsoft doubling down on its transmedia strategy isn’t surprising when you consider its vast library of IP. The live-action Halo show may not have turned out as well as it would have liked, but Prime Video’s Fallout has been a pretty big success, while an eventual Call of Duty movie was surely inevitable as soon as the ink was dry on the company’s Activision acquisition.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are additional plans to adapt the likes of Gears of War, Candy Crush, Diablo, Forza and The Elder Scrolls in the future. Xbox also said it intends to collaborate with Kojima Productions on TV and film projects after swooping in to claim publishing rights for the Metal Gear Solid creator’s upcoming action-espionage game, Physint, after Sony surprisingly let it go.