Xbox Puts Former Reddit Executive in Charge of Mojang

Mojang has a new chief executive. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced that Maria Angelidou-Smith will take over the Minecraft studio, with Kayleen Walters moving on to lead the newly created XP division. The change lands amid a broad restructuring at Microsoft's games business covering roughly 3,200 layoffs and a reshuffle of senior management.

Angelidou-Smith's career sits closer to social platforms than game development. She spent eight years at Meta working on Facebook products including app monetization and Groups, then held roles elsewhere before becoming Reddit's chief product officer in November. In an internal memo, Sharma said the studio wanted someone who had built for communities at enormous scale, was deeply technical, and understood how creators, product, technology and monetization connect. She described the new chief's first task as learning from the teams and players behind Minecraft. Commentators have noted the hire points toward a commercial focus, though Xbox has given no sign it intends to change how the game runs. Walters, meanwhile, moves to XP with a producer credit on the Minecraft movie sequel already attached to her name.

Tags

• xbox
• business

Sources

• GamesRadar+

Where this story ran: one outlet on 8 October 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.

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