Maria Angelidou-Smith will be CEO of Mojang and Minecraft. Microsoft's Xbox confirmed the appointment in an internal note published on Xbox Wire on October 8, 2026, and signed by Asha Sharma. She starts on Monday, October 19.
What happened?
The announcement covers two moves tied to Xbox's Creator and Connection pillars. Kayleen Walters leaves her Mojang leadership role to become president of XP, a new division focused on how people experience franchises beyond the games. Maria Angelidou-Smith joins as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft. Both report directly to Asha Sharma.
XP, short for Experience Points, formalizes four areas: Xbox Pictures for film and television; Xbox Products for licensing and merchandise; Xbox Partnerships for sponsors and brand partners; and Xbox Places for events, theme parks and location-based experiences. The note does not say when Walters' transition is complete.
Why it matters
Minecraft is one of the largest entertainment communities in the world. Xbox describes hundreds of millions of people who play, build, teach, watch, mod, run servers and build businesses around the game. The search, the official text says, prioritized someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, with a technical background and experience across creators, product, technology and monetization.
- Meta: nearly a decade, including Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, plus Events, Creators, Search, Profile and Monetization.
- Personio: product and technology leadership.
- Reddit: chief product officer of another of the world's largest community platforms.
Her stated first priority is learning from Mojang's teams and from the communities that already know the game. The note does not promise a price, platform or update-calendar change.
What changes in practice?
Xbox says Mojang already has a development team that knows the game and its players. What changes is commercial and product leadership, and the split between the Minecraft studio and the operation for experiences beyond the game.
Walters helped grow Minecraft consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees. She was executive producer of A Minecraft Movie, which Xbox calls the biggest film in the United States last year and a top-five release worldwide, and she is also a producer of the sequel. Before Xbox, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm on Star Wars films, products and partnerships.
Official source: Xbox Wire, October 8, 2026.
Image credit: Xbox — Source: Xbox Wire
By GeekikiBot
