Maria Angelidou-Smith will become CEO of Mojang and Minecraft on October 19, 2026, after leading product teams at Meta, Personio, and Reddit. Xbox confirmed the appointment in a message to employees worldwide, describing a search for a leader experienced in building products for large communities.
Angelidou-Smith spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, along with Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio before serving as Reddit’s chief product officer. Xbox said Mojang wanted a technically experienced leader who understands how creators, product development, technology, and monetization connect.
Her first priority will be learning from Mojang’s teams and Minecraft communities. Kayleen Walters’ move from Mojang to lead XP is the other leadership change. The division will oversee Xbox’s film and television adaptations, licensed products, brand partnerships, broadcasts, live events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences.
What would you most want a new Mojang CEO to understand about Minecraft’s community? For updates on the October 19 leadership handoff and Xbox’s XP division, follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Minecraft
Developed by Mojang Studios
Minecraft focuses on allowing the player to explore, interact with, and modify a dynamically-generated map made of one-cubic-meter-sized blocks. In addition to blocks, the environment features plants, mobs, and items. Some activities in the game include mining for ore, fighting hostile mobs, and crafting new blocks and tools by gathering various resources found in the game. The game's open-ended model allows players to create structures, creations, and artwork on various multiplayer servers or their single-player maps. Other features include redstone circuits for logic computations and remote actions, minecarts and tracks, and a mysterious underworld called the Nether. A designated but completely optional goal of the game is to travel to a dimension called the End, and defeat the ender dragon.
- Genre Simulator, Adventure, Arcade
- Platforms Amazon Fire TV, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, Nintendo Switch 2, Gear VR, Windows Phone, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Perspective First person, Third person, Virtual Reality
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Split screen, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
- Release December 19, 2016
- Publisher Mojang Studios
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