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]

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 ?

I sorted by function, as I believe I mentioned in the post. Titles shift around, but the basic purpose remains steady.

As for why those people would be credited, building something like D&D is a team effort. Giving credit is free, and people from every discipline contribute directly and indirectly to a product. I'm glad that Wizards still casts a wide net in giving credit.

 

[Parmandur]

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 ?

I tend to suspect Mike Mearls has some insight into how the credits of the 2014 PHB reflect what was going on internally at that time.

 

[gban007]

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 ?

The first post is about arcana unleashed, that Mearls compared to 2014 PHB.

Credits

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www.dndbeyond.com

 

[KYRON45]

Is it possible they are gearing up for…”not 6e”?

 

[Parmandur]

Is it possible they are gearing up for…”not 6e”?

Nah, not at this point.

 

[KYRON45]

Nah, not at this point.

Write down the date and time you wrote that down.

 

[bedir than]

Is it possible they are gearing up for…”not 6e”?

They're gearing up for
A 'season' release quarterly including some Universes Beyond
Monthly drops
Encounters
Supporting Icons
Supporting 2nd party releases near quarterly
Converting 3rd party to Beyond

That's all the stuff on the roadmap these days.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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

James Wyatt & Wesley.

 

[PCD]

The Wizards of The Coast, officially The Little River Band of TTRPG's.

 

[JDR]

NVM