Xbox cut more than 260 jobs from its Halo Studios division last month and, within weeks, stood up a formal advertising business inside a new TV and film unit called XP.

The new division is led by Kayleen Walters, head of Xbox-owned Mojang Studios. Maria Angelidou-Smith moves up to CEO of Minecraft and Mojang. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma disclosed the structure in a Thursday staff memo and named sponsorships and brand partnerships as a key investment area.

TV viewers tolerate ads. Gamers historically do not. XP is built on a single bet: that the ad economics of cable and streaming can transfer onto a console network that has run on subscriptions and software sales. Sharma did not disclose a rev-share formula for content partners. The unit's framing makes clear that advertising is the high-margin revenue line Microsoft now wants in the mix.

What changed for Meta's free pages?

Meta now treats external links inside unpaid business pages as a paid feature. Nonsubscribed accounts can include no more than two external links per post before paying for Meta One, the company's new global subscription bundle. Press Gazette reports news publishers are exempt, a carve-out that has triggered fresh argument over who qualifies as a news outlet.

Meta extended the same rule to comment sections this week. URLs beyond the cap now render as plain, nonclickable text. The restriction does not cover links inside Meta ads, Meta affiliate links, or links to Meta-owned services such as WhatsApp and Threads.

Why are independent agencies merging?

Mid-tier shops are combining into hybrid holdcos to keep pace with the Omnicom-IPG tier. Wpromote bought Giant Spoon. Chemistry acquired Colossus. Acadia purchased Crush. Each deal is modest in dollars. The cumulative direction is not.

"It's going to be harder for [indie agencies] to compete," Mars United Commerce CEO Rob Rivenburgh told AdExchanger last year after selling to Publicis. Rivenburgh had run Mars for 23 years and stayed roughly a year at Publicis. He said fewer marketers are willing to include independent shops on their rosters.

The skepticism extends to the top. WPP CEO Cindy Rose told investors on her first call last year that WPP is "no longer a holding company." Bob Lord, president of Horizon Media Holdings, has publicly questioned the same model. Mars United's first full year under the Publicis banner closed in 2025.

What else moved this week?

Apple named Steve Smith to lead M&A, replacing longtime deal chief Adrian Perica. Carson Oliver was promoted to vice president of the App Store. McCann CEO Tyler Turnbull is set to become global CEO of WPP Creative.

Skydance added Jay Askinasi as head of ad sales, David Decker as head of content sales, and Ray Hopkins as head of distribution. Smartly appointed Netflix veteran Kelly Uphoff as CTO. Infra TV, parent of ad tech platform Tatari, named Teg Grenager SVP of product.

USA Today filed a copyright infringement suit against OpenAI. Meta is testing a video-first Facebook interface in India. The freelance designer who drew the M logo for Meta's Muse AI assistant is now fielding reader criticism on Threads.

What the XP launch signals

For Xbox, the new unit marks the clearest acknowledgement yet that console hardware and Game Pass alone will not fund the next phase. Sponsorship dollars from brands that already pay a premium for engaged TV audiences are now officially in scope. That makes the usual gamer backlash, plus any future ad-load disclosure, a near-term test for the brand.