Hasbro chief executive Chris Cocks has taken direct oversight of Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, after the departure of Wizards president John Hight, Polygon reported on September 1.
Hight's exit was first disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on July 27, less than a week after Hasbro's most recent earnings call. The filing said he would step down as president of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming effective September 1 and then serve in an advisory capacity for a year. Polygon reported that Hasbro had not announced a successor or publicly identified an interim president once that date arrived.
A Hasbro representative told Polygon that the existing Wizards leadership team will report to Cocks while the company searches for its next president.
On an interim basis, the Wizards leadership team will report directly to CEO Chris Cocks.
Hasbro confirmed in July that it had begun an internal and external search for Hight's replacement. The representative told Polygon the company had no specific timeline to share and said it was committed to a thorough search process. Wizards has not clarified which individual executives are included in the leadership team now reporting to Cocks, Polygon reported.
Who runs Magic and D&D now
That leadership includes executives Hight promoted earlier this year: Rebecca Shepard, senior vice president and global play lead for Studio X, the internal Magic organization, and Aaron Forsythe, senior vice president of Magic design and creative. Shepard's role covers how players experience Magic across its formats, while Forsythe guides the game's design, creative direction and product innovation.
Dungeons & Dragons continues to be led by Dan Ayoub, who was senior vice president of digital games at Hasbro before taking over the franchise in July 2025. Polygon reported that he has described a consolidated model placing the franchise's books, video games, film and television projects under one organization, and that the approach has extended to crossover properties in the manner of Magic's Universes Beyond line. The first of those, a World of Warcraft crossover, is due in November.
The July reset
Hasbro announced Hight's departure in July alongside a statement on the continued financial and operational strength of Wizards, saying Magic and D&D continue to perform incredibly well and that its two major video game releases planned for 2027, Exodus and Warlock, remain on track. In a LinkedIn post after the filing became public, Hight said he was not disappearing or retiring and wanted more room for teaching, creative projects and playing and thinking about games.
On Hasbro's July 21 earnings call, Cocks presented a reassessment of the company's digital gaming portfolio that included the cancellation of several games planned for 2028 and beyond, a 56 million dollar write-down, and a revised strategy he described as focus, cost discipline, ownable platforms and partnership. He said Hasbro would concentrate its digital investments on trading card games and role-playing games, particularly Magic, D&D, Arena and D&D Beyond, while leaning more on development and publishing partners. Six days later, Hasbro entered its transition agreement with Hight.
Cocks was president of Wizards from 2016 until he became Hasbro chief executive in 2022. Polygon reported that Hasbro recently posted three senior openings for a dedicated D&D Universes Beyond team, including a principal game designer tasked with helping define the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons play. The listings describe collaborations and formats beyond the World of Warcraft and Star Wars products Wizards has announced.