Today, Microsoft announced it is setting up a new branch of the Xbox business named XP. In a blog over at the Xbox Wire, Microsoft details what this new area of the business looks like – it consists of four branches: Xbox Places, Xbox Pictures, Xbox Partnerships, Xbox Products.

“[XP] brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at Xbox for years and aligns them behind a shared mission: helping our franchises reach more people, create deeper connections with players and new fans, and unlock new opportunities for these fandoms to grow around the world,” says a press release from Matthew Ball, chief strategy officer at Xbox. “Great games remain at the center of these franchises and at the heart of Xbox. XP will partner with the best creative minds across our studios, along with trusted partners, to build on that foundation and create more ways for people to experience the worlds they love.”

The division will be headed up by Kayleen Walters, who previously served as studio head of Mojang Studios and vice president of franchise development at Microsoft in Redmond. “Throughout her career, Kayleen has helped steward some of the world’s most iconic entertainment properties,” says Ball in the release. “Across 13 years at Lucasfilm, she helped grow and relaunch one of the most influential franchises in history. At Mojang, her record speaks for itself. Under her tenure, Minecraft grew from an already-record setting 350 million units sold to over 425 million, its merchandising business became one of the top 20 globally. A Minecraft Movie had the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation and finished #1 at the domestic box office, and Mojang secured the first of many theme park placements to come.”

A large focus of Microsoft’s newest investment will be in cross-media partnerships, looking particularly at film and TV. It seems lots of publishers are eyeing up the film industry, no doubt buoyed by the massive success of titles like the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy movies (which have earned $1.36bn and $1bn, respectively) and Sony’s recently released Resident Evil movie (which is tracking at $280m+ at the time of writing). Xbox has had its own notable successes on the big screen, too: last year A Minecraft Movie amassed more than $550m (£415m) in two weeks, immediately setting up a sequel.

Xbox has also experimented with TV in the past, too. Fallout is the highlight for the company at the moment, with Fallout Season 2 boasting 83 million viewers tuning in during its first 13 weeks of release. Less successful was Paramount’s divisive Halo TV show, which was cancelled after two seasons. A question that springs to my mind when reading this is: where will we go next? There are plenty of Xbox franchises that’d make for good TV; Perfect Dark, Fable, and maybe even a Forza story in the style of Sony’s peculiar Gran Turismo show would work. I know the initial run at a Halo TV show was a bit of a flop, but I’d love to see a limited series on the Fall of Reach. It’d make some fine prestige television. We know there’s a Gears of War film and a Sea of Thieves film in production, too.

Elsewhere, there’s Xbox Places. This is the arm of the company that’ll oversee the Minecraft theme parks that are opening in the US and UK that so far represent over £85m of investment from Mojang and Xbox. They’re expected to open ‘between 2026 and 2027’. Will we hear about more real-life locations that’ll fall under the ‘Places’ banner? It remains to be seen.

All these initiatives will no doubt require staffing, which is such to be a sore subject for any of the staff that have been impacted by wide-ranging cuts at Microsoft and Xbox over the past few years. Given the contraction of its game studios and software business, is Xbox trying to recoup costs by pursuing other avenues for growth? It certainly seems like it.