I didn’t get the coverage of this new event up when I wanted to break it. Cynthia Williams resigned as President of Wizards of the Coast. This announcement came out last Wednesday. She will officially step down at the end of April.
BREAKING: Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming is resigning after two years, according to an SEC filing. Her successor is not yet announced. We have reached out for a comment about what this might mean for WotC. https://t.co/8N3sdVlTO6
— Rascal News (@rascal_news) April 17, 2024
Cynthia Williams came from Microsoft and was not homegrown inside of Wizards of the Coast. She didn’t bring the experience of a player/gamer but rather as a high exec for Microsoft. This has influenced how the company has grown for good and bad.
Under Williams two years reign, Wizards of the Coast was the bright spot for parent company, Hasbro. Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons sales have been good while other areas of Hasbro have way underperformed. The Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film came out and was a wonderful D&D movie even though it didn’t have the box-office success it had hoped. Wizards of the Coast bought DND Beyond to fully align the popular site with the company.
There have been a lot of disappointments and issues during Williams time. The focus of Wizards has been on money and how to make more for the company and not on the fans. They have made comments about Dungeons and Dragons being under-monetized and worked on ways to get more money from the Dungeon Masters and players. The OGL debacle ended much of the goodwill the players had with the company and many never came back. When a Youtuber was accidentally given Magic The Gathering cards early, Wizards sent the Pinkertons thugs after him to get the cards back by force.
It will be interesting to see who will take over the control of Wizards of the Coast. I hope it is someone who knows and has played Magic and D&D. There are a lot of good candidates out there. Let’s pick one that can help bring the fans back to the games we love.
(via Forbes)
Stay Geeky!
