Xbox founds its own film and TV division: What Microsoft has planned for Halo, Minecraft and more

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Xbox founds its own film and TV division: What Microsoft has planned for Halo, Minecraft and more.

When you think of Xbox, you picture controllers, Halo, and Game Pass. That's about to change: Microsoft's Xbox gaming division is setting up a dedicated unit called "XP" that brings together everything happening beyond the console controller – films, series, merchandise, live events, and brand partnerships.

Until now, this work has been running in parallel across various Xbox teams. Now the company is pulling it under one roof. Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball announced it in a blog post, first reported on by The Verge and the Hollywood Reporter.

For you, that means: the next screen adaptations from the Xbox universe will now run through a single address – instead of marketing, film teams, and licensing getting in each other's way.

Four focus areas under one roof

According to Ball, XP formalizes four "investment areas." Two are named in the blog post: Xbox Pictures is meant to make the company's own worlds and characters accessible to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling. Xbox Products builds products that are "authentic to the fandom."

What exactly the other two areas entail can't be fully pieced together from the sources available so far. The Hollywood Reporter does note, however, that XP will also extend the company's video game IP through consumer products, partnerships, and live experiences – so XP isn't just a licensing operation, but a dedicated brand universe beyond the screen.

XP will also extend the company's video game IP through consumer products, partnerships and live experiences.

Why Microsoft is doing this now

The move didn't come out of nowhere. "A Minecraft Movie" delivered Microsoft's gaming division its first real theatrical blockbuster in 2025 – Jack Black in the lead role, a commercial hit. A TV series based on "Halo" ran on Paramount+, while "Fallout" was adapted as a series by Amazon Prime Video. Both series are considered mixed successes, but they've made Xbox IP more visible than ever before.

A central unit is meant to prevent such projects from being ground down between production companies, marketing departments, and game studios in the future. Anyone kicking off an Xbox film project now knows: there's a single point of contact with the budget and strategy.

What this means for you

If you're a fan of Minecraft, Halo, Fallout, or Forza, you can look forward to more big-screen and series content – and to more products that don't just end up on GameStop shelves. How deeply Microsoft produces in-house and where the company only licenses to studios can't be gleaned from the information available so far.

What's clear is the direction: Xbox wants to play its own brands just as consistently as Disney does with Marvel and Star Wars – only with game franchises instead of comics.