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 2023– ) - IMDb

Magic: The Gathering: With Brandon Routh. Series focusing on the Planeswalkers, Magic's unique magic-wielding heroes and villains, as they contend with stakes larger than any one world can hold.

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

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.)

 

[Dausuul]

That's wild. Good for him. The question is will they move one of the heads from MtG or D&D to replace Cocks or bring someone in from outside. Most likely it'll be the head of whichever brand made the most money for the company. If it's D&D, that means Winninger.

If that's the way they pick, it won't be Winninger. D&D has been on a tear, but M:tG has also been booming, and it started from a much higher baseline.

But I doubt that will be the only basis for their decision. Hiring execs is a long and involved process.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Congratulations for him. I am surprised because Hasbro was the big fish who ate the smaller, but now WotC is become the blue-eyed boy of the toy multinational.

Spelljammer is the ultimate D&D sandbox where you can add craziest elements, for example a mash-up version of famous sci-fi franchise. This is the best "space" for a revival, potential second life, of forgotten Hasbro's franchises (together Gamma World). And if Hasbro wants an intercompany crossover with D&D Spelljammer is the best place where to fit. If someday the partnership with Disney about Star Wars ends, then Spelljammer will be the plan B.

Planescape will return, but I guess the faction war will not continue in Sigil but in the Gatetowns, and we will see new zones to replace too dangerous planes for low-level PCs.

The MTG wiki says he was working in Microsoft.

Excuse me, have you seen a giant space hammster? I am looking for my cousin!

 

[teitan]

Imagine if they would have released Spell Jammer ! They would have made five times that at least.

I'd laugh 10 more times because only obsessed D&D fans even know what Spelljammer is...

 

[teitan]

I guess the Hasbro owners liked how he Cocked up things at WotC

To hear the 1e grognards in the AD&D 1e Uncensored Facebook group say it, WOTC is losing money hand over fist and D&D only got a small bump that went to their heads from Stranger Things! But ya know, showing them the facts and articles of the increasing profits every year since 2014 resulted in the "you do you" bad actor argument.

 

[teitan]

I feel like you must have that backward. Spelljammer is copyright 1989, the same year as 2nd Edition. Planescape was released 1994, not long before the black cover reprints, and pretty close to the tail end of 2nd edition's support.

I'd buy that late 2nd edition players have a sense of nostalgia over WANTING to play Spelljammer, as it was out of print around the time they got sucked into the game by a FirstQuest or DragonStrike starter set, but TSR's in-book ads seemed unconcerned with whether the stuff they told you to buy was even possible to buy anymore.

At the end of the day, you're right: Spelljammer is the less popular cousin to Planescape. It's just how you got to that conclusion that seems off.

SPelljammer was out of print in a very short period and not supported well at all. It launched in November 1989, so essentially 1990 and 1992 the last book was released as part of the complete series. Planescape launched in 1994 and last through to the end of the 2e era with 6 boxed sets, 5 miniature sets, 26 supplements and adventures, 3 novels, a well received/critically acclaimed/iconic video game and one of the adventures is in the top 30 D&D adventures of all time, an Origins award winning novel and influenced D&D lore second only to the original materials by Gygax and co. in the 1e days. Beyond that, even when they took the logo off, products in the last year of 2e were Planescape products in all but name and it helped make a name for many of the best designers of the 3.x era who continue to be strong influences today like Wolfgang Baur and Monte Cook.

I would say that of the 2e settings, or any settings not called Forgotten Realms, I am personally shocked that this isn't the one already revived... which ones had a longer life or bigger influence on the game? Ravenloft I'll grant you but what else really? Dark Sun? ehhhhhh, it wasn't as big as you'd think. The clamoring for Spelljammer always confused me even with as cool as it could have been, it was a blunder from the get go. It sounded cool on paper and then you saw... Giant Space Hamsters. For every Mind Flayer ship or Neogi concept you had... Giant space hamsters or some other wtf element. It needs rules, not a full setting book. Meld it with Planescape as a way to travel between planes and call it a day.

 

[teitan]

That's wild. Good for him. The question is will they move one of the heads from MtG or D&D to replace Cocks or bring someone in from outside. Most likely it'll be the head of whichever brand made the most money for the company. If it's D&D, that means Winninger.

That means Mearls. Winninger is over the game, Mearls oversees the brand.

 

[teitan]

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.

Netflix has a MTG series coming already. This year.

 

[Seramus]

I just think that D&D in Space is a super popular idea already, even amongst people that aren't familiar with Spelljammer.

You have to add more a.
D&D in Spaaaaaace!

 

[vecna00]

That means Mearls. Winninger is over the game, Mearls oversees the brand.

That would be Mearls boss, Nathan Stewart, who would be more likely.

If he's still with the company.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

With right videogames Spelljammer to promote the franchise this could become a serious rival for Warhammer 40.000.

Spelljammer in the DMGuild could be the door of the craziest ideas for D&D, and lots of these based in no-fantasy titles.

And Hasbro wants to sell their original ideas. Everybody can create and sell toys of dinosaurs or megafaun from the ice age, but Jurassic Park, Tyco's Dino-Riders or Playmobil's Dino Rise are trademark. You can sell figures of an hairy alien, but wookies or ewoks are trademark by Lucasfilm. Hasbro wants D&D settings to become multimedia franchises, selling different types of products, not only sourcebooks.

We can agree Spelljammer was not an alpha setting, it wasn't in the list of the most popular ones, but this doesn't mean it can't have a potential as future cash-cow.

A mash-up crossover of DC's Legion of Superheroes and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy within Spelljammer? It a crazy idea, but you could safe it would be bought by speculators. Spelljammer-Star Trek crossover? Yes, here you can blame Q as possible responsible. Power Rangers-Spelljammers? And here I can say an explanation about because the zords are dinosaurs. It is a old tradition to use native animals to avoid cultural shock if these were accidentally watched by primitive civilitations, and extinted species to avoid accidental misundertanding about signs of omens because a giant metallic creature is like the heraldic shield of this or that feudal lord, or the tribal totem.

* Hasbro doesn't want to sell toys only, but to become an entertaiment empire, like Disney, but also a videogame developer (Nintento, Electronic Arts, Blizzard Activision..), and now a famous IP is one of the main hooks to sell new titles.

* Now some aliens races/species from pulp age are public-domain (and then this could appear as D&D creatures, in the same way the Lovecraftian monsters in Pahtfinder).

* Could Paizo or a 3PP to publish a Spelljammer version of Starfinder PC races?