WotC New WotC President Is World of Warcraft's John Hight

After WotC president Cynthia Williams resigned a couple of months ago, taking up the CEO role at Funko, we've been waiting to hear who her replacement will be.

WotC has now announced that John Hight--who previously managed the World of Warcraft franchise for Blizzard Entertainment--is taking over. Like Williams, Hight comes from a video gaming background.

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said "I admire John’s career focus on fostering community. He is a true embodiment of our mission to bring people together through play. John’s love of D&D and Magic: The Gathering, combined with his leadership in video games, will be crucial as we expand our digital offerings to deliver what our fans crave."

Hight worked at Blizzard for 12 years, on both World of Warcraft and Diablo. According to Business Wire, his role includes oversight of Hasbro's network of gaming studios and digital licensing agreements.

 

[Michael Linke]

His pre-Executive bio is interesting. Video game development is not ta letop development, but...the dude has some real street cred it seems. Particularly note the bolded:

"John Hight is the Director of Production, External Development for Sony Computer Entertainment of America. In 1991, John built his first game, Battleship, for the Philips CDi player. Since that time he has worked on over 30 games and nine educational products on various platforms. He's been fortunate to serve many different development roles: programmer, artist, designer, writer, producer, and studio executive. John oversees external production for Sony in Santa Monica, where his team has produced BlastFactor (one of the first downloadable games on Sony's Network Platform) and flow (the first indie game published on PlayStation 3). While Executive Producer at Atari, John brought Wizards of the Coast, BioWare, and Obsidian together to develop Neverwinter Nights 2. In his role as Executive Producer and Director of Design for Electronic Arts, John led the design and creative production of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, and Nox. John holds a BSE in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico and an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business."

He worked on games that have HUGE world building and story, too. Command & Conquer, WoW have far more backstory than is needed for any game of their genre. He's probably overseen everything we really care about short of book publishing.

 

[Deset Gled]

If you're looking for a manager for WotC where else are you going to look? Forgetting the actual technical implementation for a moment, WoW shares a lot with MtG and D&D. They're entertainment and specifically gaming markets. The franchise and name recognition is important. They've dabbled in expanding that franchise to other venues. The list goes on.

What other industry are they supposed to draw from?

Possibly the publishing industry (although that's primarily for D&D, not MtG). Alternatively, they could have pulled someone from a media/TV/movie company (especially one with a fantasy background). There are also companies that focus on board games; pulling someone into a bigger role from a smaller company is odd but not unheard of. I assume there's no shortage of techbros with impressive portfolios that could bring a "unique" perspective. Lastly, there is always the possibility of an internal promotion rather than an outside hire.

That being said, I think pulling in someone from a video game company is a logical choice. But it was still a choice; there are other options. Hiring someone with that background gives some pretty clear insight about where they see the brand going.

 

[Aldarc]

Hight worked at Blizzard for 12 years, on both World of Warcraft and Diablo.

Some potential red flags right there.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe we could be an update d20 version of Warcraft and Diablo in D&D Beyond.

I guess he has been hired for the videogame division but also because he could help to knock the right doors if Hasbro wanted some deal with Microsoft.

Hasbro worries more about the videogame industry than the TTRPGs. We know wich moves more money.

 

[mamba]

What other industry are they supposed to draw from?

Cocks came from MS… generally speaking if they got someone from consumer products, they could easily spin that as well, it doesn’t have to be computer games

I have nothing against the guy, I know nothing about him, but computer games are not the only choice

 

[Parmandur]

John oversaw D3: Reaper of Souls which was a phenomenal expansion so I'm feeling positive about how this pans out. I personally think WotC should divide themselves into two halves: Digital and Tabletop. That way both sides can focus on their respective strengths and we end up with better products overall.

They've divided up into more like 5 studios, I believe: Tabletop Magic and Tabletop D&D are seperate from their video game studios, for instance.

 

[Velderan]

John left Blizzard in December 2023. Williams left WotC in April 2024. I'm sure he was in talks with WotC even before he left Blizzard. There may have been non-compete clauses that had to time out. I would bet that John Hight was already picked and the transition to him was in progress behind the scenes when Williams left.

That community was very worried at the time he left, as he was in charge when a lot of great things happened for them--Mists of Pandora, Shadowlands, Legion, the revival of Classic. Yes, not great things happened on his watch: Battle for Azeroth, but he would have learned lessons from those. In hoow many industries in the world do we have executives in charge of overseeing teams that care about player engagement, storytelling, game mechanics, graphic design... Like a few other rational people here, I'm really confused as to where some of you expect WotC to find its executives if not from within the gaming industry.

D&D Classic confirmed?

 

[Parmandur]

Possibly the publishing industry (although that's primarily for D&D, not MtG). Alternatively, they could have pulled someone from a media/TV/movie company (especially one with a fantasy background). There are also companies that focus on board games; pulling someone into a bigger role from a smaller company is odd but not unheard of. I assume there's no shortage of techbros with impressive portfolios that could bring a "unique" perspective. Lastly, there is always the possibility of an internal promotion rather than an outside hire.

That being said, I think pulling in someone from a video game company is a logical choice. But it was still a choice; there are other options. Hiring someone with that background gives some pretty clear insight about where they see the brand going.

Right, because most of WotC employees at this point are working on video games, like Exodus.

 

[Parmandur]

Cocks came from MS… generally speaking if they got someone from consumer products, they could easily spin that as well, it doesn’t have to be computer games

No, but it is fairly promising thst this guy started as a programmer and game dev, moving on up from producer to executive. Means there will be some understanding of the development process.

 

[KYRON45]

Does anyone know how much creative input the president of the company has? Is he a creative or just an administrator? Does he guide product development closely or is he the guy whos genius is networking and contracting with other aspects of the company? Has he ever played D&D or any TTRPG? Will his strength be the next AP or the confluence of video games and TTRPGs? Might he be the guy who finally decides that its time to start working on 6e?

There are a lot of experts out there but do we really know what Mr. Hight is bringing to the table?