Hirings and firings at D&D over the last few years: a changing of the guard?

Over the last few years, there's been a major changing of the guard over at Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast is looking for its third president in three years, the D&D 5E lead team of Mearls, Crawford, and Perkins, is gone, and a slew of new game design hires have taken place this year. This all followed a massive sweep of layoffs by WotC owner Hasbro back in 2023, where over a thousand employees lost their jobs, including about 100 from WotC itself. Dan Ayoub now heads D&D, and is spearheading a new 'franchise' model, and the brand as a whole is turning its gaze back on the past with announcements of a new ICONS line and a renewed focus on older worlds and legacy creators.

While it's impossible to track every staff change at a company the size of Wizards of the Coast, we have covered some of the main events over the last few years.

• WotC President Chris Cocks is Hasbro's New CEO (Jan 2022)
• WotC Has A New President (Feb 2022)
• Hasbro Laying Off 1100 Employees (December 2023)
• WotC President Cynthia Williams Resigns (April 2024)
• New WotC President Is World of Warcraft's John Hight (July 2024)
• D&D Hiring New Game Designer Months After Firing Many (Aug 2024)
• Hasbro Hit With Layoffs, Wizards of the Coast Impacted (October 2024)
• D&D's Christopher Perkins Promoted to Creative Director (Oct 2024)
• Wizards of the Coast Is Hiring a D&D Worldbuilder (Feb 2025)
• 90% Of D&D's Project Sigil Team Laid Off (March 2025)
• Chris Perkins Announces Retirement from Dungeons & Dragons (April 2025)
• Jeremy Crawford Also Leaving D&D Team Later This Month (April 2025)
• 3% Of Hasbro's Workforce Laid Off (June 2025)
• Todd Kenreck Let Go from WotC (June 2025)
• Jess Lanzillo Departs Wizards of the Coast (June 2025)
• Wizards of the Coast Hiring New Lead Designer and Head of Game Ecosystem for D&D (June 2025)
• Dungeons & Dragons Shifts to Franchise Model, Dan Ayoub Named as Head (July 2025)
• James Ohlen Shifts From Archetype Entertainment Head to Creative Consultant for Tabletop RPGs at Wizards (Dec 2025)
• Justice Ramin Arman Promoted to Game Design Director of Dungeons & Dragons (Dec 2025)
• Taylor Navarro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer (Jan 2026)
• Wizards Hires Erin Roberts as Game Designer for D&D (Jan 2026)
• Leon Barillaro Joins Wizards of the Coast as D&D Designer (Jan 2026)
• James Haeck Joins Wizards of the Coast as Senior D&D Designer (Jan 2026)
• Wizards of the Coast hiring TRPG Publishing Lead to coordinate third-party publishing (April 2026)
• Wizards of the Coast is hiring a senior AI engineer for customer-facing features (June 2026)
• John Hight steps down as president of Wizards of the Coast (July 2026)
• LaTia Jacquise let go from Wizards of the Coast (October 2026)
• Celeste Conowitch hired by Wizards of the Coast as Senior Game Developer for Dungeons & Dragons (October 2026)

 

[mearls]

It's interesting to compare the list that @plecostomus shared with the 5e PHB from 2014. The organization doesn't line up exactly, so I had to sort people by function to avoid double counting anyone.

Global Play Lead: Position didn't exist.

Art: 10 people now versus 9 then

Editing: 3 now versus 4 then

Game Designers: 13 now versus 11 then

Product Strategy: 3 now versus 0 then

Production: 8 now versus 4 then

Worldbuilding: 3 now versus 0 then

Commercial: 2 now, 0 then

Franchise: 13 now, 3 then

Marketing: 22 now, 8 then

Production Services and Supply Chain: 7 now versus 5 then

Other Support: 4 now versus 0 then (I think this covers the D&D Beyond content people)

89 people today today versus 44 then. If you are wondering why the growth seems to be in every category except in the groups making the content, you have acquired a profound insight into the broader gaming business (especially video games) in 2026.

 

[abazaba]

If you are wondering why the growth seems to be in every category except in the groups making the content, you have acquired a profound insight into the broader gaming business (especially video games) in 2026.

I'm not quite sure that the numbers you presented here really supports your theory.

 

[mamba]

I'm not quite sure that the numbers you presented here really supports your theory.

are we reading the same numbers? Do we have a different understanding of what these categories are?

Franchise: 13 now, 3 then

Marketing: 22 now, 8 then

 

[abazaba]

Game Designers: 13 now versus 11 then

Worldbuilding: 3 now versus 0 then

Sounds like an interesting increase.

Franchise: 13 now, 3 then

are we reading the same numbers? Do we have a different understanding of what these categories are?

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'franchise' increase could include all the people working on (among others) the "World of Warcraft" and "Star War's" "Universes Beyond" products.

--- edit ---

Also: what were the sources this data came from ? Is WotC required by law to publicly list all the people that work at all their departments ? Do we really have this data? I saw no other source citation other than 'plecostomus did it', with no source at all that mearls got his data from.

 

[bedir than]

It's interesting to compare the list that @plecostomus shared with the 5e PHB from 2014. The organization doesn't line up exactly, so I had to sort people by function to avoid double counting anyone.

Global Play Lead: Position didn't exist.

Art: 10 people now versus 9 then

Editing: 3 now versus 4 then

Game Designers: 13 now versus 11 then

Product Strategy: 3 now versus 0 then

Production: 8 now versus 4 then

Worldbuilding: 3 now versus 0 then

Commercial: 2 now, 0 then

Franchise: 13 now, 3 then

Marketing: 22 now, 8 then

Production Services and Supply Chain: 7 now versus 5 then

Other Support: 4 now versus 0 then (I think this covers the D&D Beyond content people)

89 people today today versus 44 then. If you are wondering why the growth seems to be in every category except in the groups making the content, you have acquired a profound insight into the broader gaming business (especially video games) in 2026.

If I'm not mistaken the '14 PHB was all hands on deck, whereas Arcana Unleashed was not supported by every designer, worldbuilder, etc as the current design team is supporting several simultaneous projects more similar to the '16-'19 stretch

 

[mearls]

If I'm not mistaken the '14 PHB was all hands on deck, whereas Arcana Unleashed was not supported by every designer, worldbuilder, etc as the current design team is supporting several simultaneous projects more similar to the '16-'19 stretch

It looks like they are crediting the entire team, not just folks working on AU. That would mean the team on D&D is even larger!

OTOH, off the top of my head there are a lot more things aside from the TTRPG in '26. In '14 there was the Neverwinter MMO, the Sundering novels, comics, Wizkids minis, and the Sword Coast Legends video game.

Today there are comics, novels, licensed toys, miniatures, board games, multiple video games, and more. The marketing team number makes a lot more sense if it's the franchise's team rather than the team working on the TTRPG.

 

[Morrus]

Also: what were the sources this data came from ? Is WotC required by law to publicly list all the people that work at all their departments ? Do we really have this data? I saw no other source citation other than 'plecostomus did it', with no source at all that mearls got his data from.

It was the credits in a book. You can tell by reading the post.

 

[Parmandur]

Some churn is normal. Who's the continuity at this point though?

James Wyatt, Wes Schneider are the big ones, Justice has been around for a while now too.

 

[Parmandur]

It looks like they are crediting the entire team, not just folks working on AU. That would mean the team on D&D is even larger!

OTOH, off the top of my head there are a lot more things aside from the TTRPG in '26. In '14 there was the Neverwinter MMO, the Sundering novels, comics, Wizkids minis, and the Sword Coast Legends video game.

Today there are comics, novels, licensed toys, miniatures, board games, multiple video games, and more. The marketing team number makes a lot more sense if it's the franchise's team rather than the team working on the TTRPG.

More apples to apples might be to compare the credits for Volo's Guide.

 

[abazaba]

It was the credits in a book. You can tell by reading the post.

Well unless I'm blindingly mistaken, but: I cannot find at the very least half of the 'titles' listed in mearls post in the PHB credits (2014 and 2024), and vice versa the titles listed in the PHB in mearls post. And even then, I'm not even sure if all the job titles listed in the credits would tell the whole story. Why would some of the job titles mearls mentions even be listed in the credits of a PHB ? For example, why would a job title like 'Product Strategy' or 'Worldbuilding' or "Franchise" be listed in a PHB ?