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.

 

[Ancalagon]

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.

you feel that faint shadow passing by?

Look above. Is that a bird? A plane? A spelljamming ship? No, it's the joke flying over your head

(it's ok, I've been there too!)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Dear Olaf, have you been on the Internet lately? About the only exposure that DnD hasn't gotten yet is the sekrit government mind control ray that people believe in. I used to be a retailer. I was at a trade show when the "Essentials" line came out.

WotC held a seminar entitled "How to Advertise Dungeons and Dragons" by the halfway point, the room had very nearly emptied out as it was WotC/Hasbro explaining bragging about buying buswraps for the Penny Arcade convention and so on. It had no information for retailers to use locally, unless 'locally' meant Seattle. At the end, they had a Q&A, I was the only one to raise my hand, and the only one to ask "How does a buswrap in Seatlle advertise my sales of D&D in Wisconsin?" The WotC people stared at me, as if I had asked them if I had killed their kittens. How dare he ask that question!! type attitude. They had no response. They looked like dead fish, their cold, lifeless eyes staring back at me. Another person raised their hand, "How does advertising in Convention book in Seattle help my store in South Carolina?" More dead fish eyes, and then a half-hearted attempt to justify the last hour by saying that the 'customers' would see these things at the Convention and come back wanting to buy the product through us. The other gent and I started at it. "We don't have customers who can afford to travel to Seattle for conventions. Our customers are people who are under 18, or use what disposable income they have to buy product off of Amazon at discounted rates." Dead fish. Dead fish. Dead, lifeless fish. "Okay, thanks for attending our program, we hope to see you tonight at the dinner." and they quickly ran out. At dinner, the Hasbro/WotC sales head at the time, regaled us with a 45 minute talk about HER CHARACTER exploring the Essentials world. Quite a few people walked out after eating the free meal.

The point to this is that they already have enough promotion, and the market is becoming saturated with advertisement. It has been for some time. WotC is Hasbro's cash cow because of the mindless drones who have to rush out and buy every new book. From "Betty the White's Guide to Adventuring as a Senior Citizen" to "Boo's Fantasickal Tales of Adventuring in the Rear End" and fools will spend every dollar they have to get the exclusive pink/brown leathered cover. 6th Ed could be "Roll a d6, if you don't roll a 1, you win!" and it'd make them a few million dollars.

You seem bitter.

 

[MNblockhead]

My suspects now are the official anouncement will be in April 1st, only to troll us, being this time the true new. The last UA is a good sign of Spelljammer as a comingsoon sourcebook.

If we talk about speculative fiction(fantasy+sci-fi) then animation could be cheaper for production.

I see other hook and it is the retro/vintage look, something like those retro-clone RPGs imitating the art style of the old-school titles.

The 80's cartoon was enough fun for children in that time. If there is not a revival it is because Disney has got the rights (and DC was who published the Spelljammer comics in the 80's).

That was the scariest depiction of a mind flayer I've ever seen.

 

[MNblockhead]

Yes, the old, low budget crap will doom any future endeavor. Doom it I say!

Because past performance has always been a good predictor of future results
View attachment 149472

I never know Eval Knievel played Cap.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If the future M:tG show is cancelled in Netflix, and we know it wouldn't be a surprise, the serie could be continued in other streaming plataform.

Arcane is working very good, but the studio was working about it for... six years?

The Hasbro/WotC's main goal is the digital market. They worry more about to produce videogames.

Dark Sun had got a comic published by IDW, with the spirit of the setting, but without the visual hook, without the same tribal-punk look.

Today WotC's strategy is lesser books but better qualty, something like an AAA videogame or a blockbuster Hollywood production. They notice with the open licence opened Pandora's box, and there are a lot of crunch books by 3PPs. And the last edition has been designed to be easy to be learnt and understand by the new players. There is a combo of reasons to explain the great success of this edition.

This is not the players buying more books (3.5 age ended) but now there is a higher number of players buying books. D&D is the game where parents and children want to play together, allowing the necessary generation replace.

My doubts are what will happen after the end of Hasbro-Paramount partnership deal. Maybe it is renewed, or we will see losing the exclusive rights, and then we will see a licence agremeent with different companies, maybe one for setting.

Greyhawk has to come back to avoid a saturation of Forgotten Realms.

About Spelljammer this sounds like an old movie that is a total bomb in the hitbox, but later it becomes a cult film. I guess after more twenty years the genre has become richer, and lots of players want to add to their D&D games many things from their favorite videogames, comics or teleseries.

The last UA hasn't to mean the return of Spelljammer, not yet. Maybe the future book will be a totally new module about the classic alien spaceship crashed in a fantasy world.

 

[Staffan]

Not necessarily: Cowboy Bebop got 1, while Dragon Prince is working in Season 4, and Stranger Things is coming up on 4 as well. The pattern is "what people watch stays, what they don't watch doesn't."

Three seasons seems to be the standard for streaming, unless something's a huge success and/or failure. Streaming services have slightly different incentives than regular TV: they don't make money directly from viewers (by way of advertisements), but from subscribers. So if a show can get people to subscribe, it's good, but people are not very likely to unsubscribe because a particular show is canceled. So a new show, to attract new subscribers, is generally preferable to a second, third, or fourth season of an old show.

Also, as I understand it, there used to be a breakpoint at 100 episodes where a TV show could be syndicated, creating a long tail of sorts as it goes into reruns all over the place. You don't get that with streaming - they will keep the show on their own service for ever and ever, but it will never be the kind of show where you sit around one lazy afternoon and mindlessly switch channels until you find a random Friends episode to chuckle along to.

 

[Oofta]

I never know Eval Knievel played Cap.

What, with all those iconic comics with Cap driving around on his red white and blue motorcycle that had rocket assist and could be launched out of a conversion van? With a shield made of plexiglass and wearing a motorcycle helmet?

I vaguely remember watching this once for our bad movie night competition. Apparently there was even a sequel. You can read all about it here.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

The point to this is that they already have enough promotion, and the market is becoming saturated with advertisement. It has been for some time. WotC is Hasbro's cash cow because of the mindless drones who have to rush out and buy every new book. From "Betty the White's Guide to Adventuring as a Senior Citizen" to "Boo's Fantasickal Tales of Adventuring in the Rear End" and fools will spend every dollar they have to get the exclusive pink/brown leathered cover. 6th Ed could be "Roll a d6, if you don't roll a 1, you win!" and it'd make them a few million dollars.

uh, there I was, thinking that was because they made a good game enjoyed by players from many age groups!

I mean...''Wake up, sheeple!'' amirite?!

 

[Von Ether]

The last UA hasn't to mean the return of Spelljammer, not yet. Maybe the future book will be a totally new module about the classic alien spaceship crashed in a fantasy world.

The EG guys are already tackling that and I think it's already on pre-order. (Esper Genesis is highly under-rated for both its high compatibility with 5e and its wild sci-fi imagination)

Expedition from the Mysterious Peaks

Mystic fantasy meets heroic sci-fi in an epic adventure saga for 5E.

www.kickstarter.com

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the streaming services aren't the old cable TV but more like to hire a "collection files". The new series are the hook for new subscribers, and when these discover in the "library" a lot of titles more according to their tastes, then they keep.

Hasbro needs the best relation with different companies that are rivales among them: Netflix, Disney, Warner, Amazon, Paramount... And these may want exclusivity in any partnership deal, but this couldn't be the best strategy for Hasbro. And if Hasbro can becomes an entertaiment empire the others will not want that poppy to grow too tall as future new rival.

I like to speculate about merger and acquisitions, and how these could affect WotC (for example new franchises added to the Hasbroverse), but we can't say what is going to happen in this new year 2022.

My opinion about Alligator Alley Entertainment Inc, the creators of Esper Genesis, is they are one of the 3PPs with potential best future. Their franchise Esper Genesis will be not forgotten easily. Their books should be bought, at least by speculators.