WotC WotC President Chris Cocks is Hasbro’s New CEO

Hasbro has appointed WotC president Chris Cocks as it’s new CEO.

Hasbro Names Chris Cocks as Chief Executive Officer

PAWTUCKET, R.I., January 05, 2022--Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Chris Cocks as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective February 25, 2022. Mr. Cocks currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of...

finance.yahoo.com

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Chris Cocks as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective February 25, 2022. Mr. Cocks currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming division, a global leader in tabletop and digital gaming. He will succeed Interim CEO, Rich Stoddart, who was appointed following the October passing of Hasbro’s longtime CEO Brian Goldner. Mr. Stoddart, who has served as a Hasbro independent director since 2014, will become Chair of the Board, effective February 25, 2022.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

All hail Cocks! May the glory of greatness go to Cocks!

That said, if memory serves correctly, Mr. Cocks has long been a Magic the Gathering player, so if he's in an even higher position now, I wonder if this means we'll see a push for more MtG integrated into Hasbro projects, like a MtG movie/series, or more MtG settings turned into DnD books.

 

[Blue Orange]

Spelljammer's advantage is it has a concept space that would be very well received in the current headspace of fantasy gaming, a thing which was a curiosity when it originally appeared might bloom into something much more interesting today. Planescape has a different problem: a legacy of products which were amazingly exotic and innovative for their time, which informed much of gaming's visual and headspace afterward, thus reducing the impact of a revival considerably today if only because their exotic elements are now part of the common background in fantasy art and themes. As such....selling Planescape today would be harder to do since it looks like so much else (because all that other stuff was influenced to some degree by it); but Spelljammer has been lying low for a long time now, and the desire for really exotic, genre-bending settings is seriously on the rise now.

Kind of the way Citizen Kane looks really hackneyed now; all its stylistic innovations became standard film grammar.

I think (and you probably know better) Planescape, together with White Wolf, started the 'edgy' trend, complete with literal spikes coming off random things.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

like a MtG movie/series

You mean like this one that has been in development at Netflix for a while now?

Magic: The Gathering (TV Series) | Animation, Action, Adventure

| TV-MA

www.imdb.com

It is only animation, and not live-action., but still coming.

 

[EthanSental]

Great for Chris! A downside was seeing Goldner passed away, relatively young guy.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Hasbro promotes digital gaming chief Chris Cocks to CEO

Hasbro Inc on Wednesday promoted the head of its digital gaming division as the toymaker’s next chief executive officer, following the death of Brian Goldner…

www.google.com

They will name the President of WotC in the coming weeks.

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm not so sure Spelljammer is worth all that much on name alone. I think Dragonlance has more name recognition these days, or even Planescape!

Spelljammer is remembered fondly by a small minority of fans from the late 2e period of AD&D, but I don't think there are a ton of others who actually know much about it.

That said, I think there is a band of nostalgia regarding it among some of the people working currently on D&D at WotC and that may bring in some material dealing with that topic in the near future (or not...up to them I would suppose).

I think it depends more on how they present and market it on how much it may or may not bring in profits if that situation arises.

I think you are forgetting spelljammer fans are the most successful financialy, good looking, and charming of D&D fans so they have the money and influence to build the brand. (I am bassing this on a sample size of me but I am sure it tracks).

Plus add collectable minis for the ships for space combat and some full scale plastic models of things like the squishing and the wasp for character ships and you can cash in.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

This is my favorite ENWorld thread of the year...

(yeah, I know, year's only 5 days old, but still - I can have a favorite!)

 

[darjr]

Wasn't it the original WotC CEO that said WotC would eventually take over Hasbro, and that D&D would be part of that? Am I remembering wrong?

 

[ART!]

All hail Cocks! May the glory of greatness go to Cocks!

That said, if memory serves correctly, Mr. Cocks has long been a Magic the Gathering player, so if he's in an even higher position now, I wonder if this means we'll see a push for more MtG integrated into Hasbro projects, like a MtG movie/series, or more MtG settings turned into DnD books.

I feel like we might see more MtG-themed boardgames.

 

[Von Ether]

I think the visuals of Spelljammer are what make people excited. After the first boxed set, the excutation started to slip. It also suffered from trying to be both a swashbuckling AND Master & Commander game. Those are are usually two different mind sets. (Do you use the floating ship to lift you to your lover's window in the castle, or do you use it to drop rocks on a castle beyond fireball range.)