Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks takes direct charge of D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is still searching for its new president, so Dungeons and Dragons’ leadership now reports directly to Hasbro’s top banana.

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As of September 1, Wizards of the Coast president John Hight has stepped down from his role. Hight announced he would step into an advisory role one month ago, but no replacement has since been confirmed. A Wizards representative told Polygon on Tuesday that the company's current leadership will report to Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks for the foreseeable - meaning Wizards' former president is once again in direct charge of D&D.

Cocks was Wizards' president between 2016 and 2022, and he's led Hasbro as CEO since then - but not without becoming a divisive figure in the tabletop space. If you follow D&D's business updates, you might remember Chris Cocks as the guy who loves using AI in his home campaigns. He's also been a vocal supporter of D&D copying MTG's homework by bringing Universes Beyond to its main product line. And he was a named defendant in multiple lawsuits earlier this year regarding Magic: The Gathering's business practices.

D&D still has a leadership team beneath Cocks that'll be more directly involved with the game. That presumably includes head of franchise Dan Ayoub, who has taken a major public role in communicating D&D's future direction.

Plus, Cox's role as a direct report is only temporary. An official statement from July 28 confirms Hasbro is searching internally and externally for Hight's replacement. Polygon's Wizards representative declined to share a specific timeline for this recruitment drive.

Hight, formerly vice president of World of Warcraft, only worked with Wizards for two years. He leaves the publisher at a time of tremendous change (at least, for D&D). Magic's million-dollar Universes Beyond idea has been announced as a new Dungeons and Dragons line, for example, and Wizards is actively hiring the leaders who will front it.

As Hight himself put it on LinkedIn: "Leading Wizards over the past two years has been one of the greatest privileges of my career". "Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons are stronger than I've ever seen them, and our 2027 lineup-including Exodus and Warlock-is shaping up to be something truly special." Back in July, Wizards assured fans that this videogame slate remains on-track.

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Mollie Russell is Wargamer's resident D&D and guides specialist. She has a degree in Creative Writing and English Literature, and you can also find her writing at Pocket Tactics and in various poetry magazines. She's covered some of the biggest and weirdest releases for Wargamer - including the DnD movie, Frosthaven, and Baldur's Gate 3. Mollie is constantly playing Dungeons and Dragons, but she's still on her quest to try every tabletop RPG she can get her hands on. An avid fan of MTG drafts and horror board games, she will take any opportunity to info-dump about why Blood on the Clocktower is the best social deduction game. (She/Her)