All Change At WotC: New President Arrives From Microsoft As Greg Leeds Resigns

WotC's President, Greg Leeds, has resigned, to be replaced by Microsoft's Chris Cocks. The changeover takes place on June 6th, with Leeds staying on to facilitate a smooth transfer. Greg Leeds has been President of WotC for 8 years, since 2008. Chris Cock's most recent position was Vice President of OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft. The full press release is below.


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Chris Cocks

[h=4]Press Release[/h]
PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hasbro, Inc. today announced that Greg Leeds has resigned as President of Wizards of the Coast, and will be replaced by Chris Cocks who joins the company from Microsoft. Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, offers games and entertainment under world-renowned brands such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUEL MASTERS. Leeds has served as the President of Wizards of the Coast since 2008, and started at Hasbro in 2001. He will stay on to ensure a smooth transition to Cocks, who will officially join the team in Seattle on June 6.

“We are incredibly thankful to Greg for the tremendous contributions he has made to Hasbro, especially during his time leading Wizards of the Coast,” said John Frascotti, President, Hasbro Brands. “Today, thanks to Greg’s commitment and passion, Wizards of the Coast’s brands are stronger than ever. Though MAGIC: THE GATHERING was introduced more than 20 years ago, it is more relevant and popular today than it’s ever been, with a record number of people around the world playing the game and participating in MAGIC organized play events.”

Leeds will be replaced by Chris Cocks, who most recently served as Vice President, OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft Corporation, where he led a global sales and technical engagement team. Prior to his eight-year tenure with Microsoft, Chris served as Vice President of Educational Games at LeapFrog, where he led a cross-discipline team to drive hardware planning, software design and development, marketing and channel management. He began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble and served in product management and marketing leadership positions in Xbox and MSN, including work on hit franchises like Halo and Fable, prior to joining Leapfrog. Cocks is an avid player and fan of Wizards of the Coast brands, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

“We’re very excited to welcome Chris to the Wizards of the Coast family,” said Frascotti. “As an avid fan and player with extensive digital experience, I’m confident Chris is the right person to help us build on the tremendous momentum around our brands and take the franchise to the next level by delivering exciting new experiences to our growing and passionate fan base around the world."

See the list of ex-WotC employees here.
 

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Reinhart

First Post
I think we tend to forget that D&D has a huge value to WotC and Hasbro that far outweighs its revenue stream. It's been around twice as long as MtG, has cred with gamers who have never even played it, and is used as part of the common vernacular in ways that most games including MtG will likely never achieve, sort of like Monopoly and Clue. It's the old workhorse. It's a game-world elder statesman. It's not a financial cash cow but it is still an anchor product for this little corner of Hasbro.

I think this is similar to what corporate accountants call "goodwill." D&D doesn't make much money, but it carries a cultural cachet that suggests it has potential for greater value. I suspect that when Hasbro does figure out how to make D&D more mainstream, it will probably still make most of its D&D profits from licensing "life-style" products such as t-shirts and phone cases.
 



A lot of comments focusing on D&D and computers, but how is MtG going these days? Are sales dropping?MtG is WotC's most important brand.

Hearthstone vs MTG Online might be the bigger motivator than any drop in physical sales of MTG packs. My understanding is its the 1000 pound gorilla in the online card game sphere (poker aside obviously).
 

evilbob

Explorer
Hearthstone vs MTG Online might be the bigger motivator than any drop in physical sales of MTG packs. My understanding is its the 1000 pound gorilla in the online card game sphere (poker aside obviously).
It's easy to forget but MtG online has ALSO been around for FOURTEEN YEARS. It was around before D&D 3.5 was released. It was created way back when the internet was just a wee baby, and it absolutely shows. But that said, for a terrible gaming interface, the core mechanics programming has always been good.

All THAT said: MtG Online doesn't really "compete" with Hearthstone. MtG:O has hundreds of thousands of players; Hearthstone has tens of millions. Hearthstone took everything that might be fun about playing MtG in an online environment and then made it much better. (But that's sort of Blizzard's thing: take something that's already popular and then do it right.)
 

Reinhart

First Post
Hearthstone vs MTG Online might be the bigger motivator than any drop in physical sales of MTG packs. My understanding is its the 1000 pound gorilla in the online card game sphere (poker aside obviously).

Part of the problem is that Magic was designed as a table-top game in 90's and Hearthstone was designed to be an internet game in 2014. There are many components and game mechanics to Magic the Gathering that make it hard to design for as far as User Experience. Even if you get a near perfect translation of the game, it's still designed to take about 30 minutes to an hour to play. Meanwhile, Hearthstone is set up for a simpler set of "fire and forget" mechanics well-suited for asynchronous interaction. Its matches last about 15 minutes, and it takes less investment to assemble a deck and learn the game. Basically, Hearthstone is designed well to be an online pick-up card-game, and therefore hard to compete with if you're copying a game that doesn't have the exact same goals and design considerations.

What WotC should be happy about is that there's probably minimal incentive for Blizzard to expand into physical card games since that has a lower ROI and great risks than just maintaining Hearthstone as an online game. Magic can continue thriving as what it has pretty much always been. If WotC wants to a slice of the digital pie, they should create a new game and perhaps a new IP specifically conceived for that purpose. Unfortunately, creating new things is not something that Hasbro and WotC do much anymore.
 


G

Guest 6801328

Guest
The amount of pure, evidence-less conjecture in this thread is simply...well, typical, I guess.
 

lyle.spade

Adventurer
The amount of pure, evidence-less conjecture in this thread is simply...well, typical, I guess.

Gamers: our entire hobby is based around made-up-stuff...so why should it be surprising that there's so much of the same in this thread? I choose to look at it as a form of crowd-sourced fiction, inspired by real events.

ElfCrusher wins the Internet! :)
 

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