Former Warcraft common supervisor John Hight, who left Blizzard in 2024 and have become president of Wizards of the Coast—a place that gave him oversight of “all publishing and growth efforts for Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and Hasbro Digital Gaming”—is leaving the corporate after simply two years.
Hight’s departure was revealed by a US Securities and Change Fee submitting (by way of GamesIndustry) saying that he and Hasbro reached a “Transitional Advisory Companies Settlement” on July 27. Underneath the phrases of that settlement, he’ll stay in his present place till September 1, after which he’ll spend one other 12 months as an advisor to the CEO—until he is terminated first.
Hight had almost 13 years at Blizzard when he left in June 2024; he took over as president of Wizards of the Coast simply two months later. It is probably not related to the matter at hand, however Hight will proceed to earn his $800,000 wage whereas within the advisory position, though the unspecified annual money bonuses he was bringing in on high of that, which had been presumably hooked up to some company efficiency metric or one other, will not be relevant.
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Hight’s looming departure comes within the shadow of videogame turmoil at Hasbro, which only a week in the past recorded a $56 million impairment arising from the cancellation of a number of videogame initiatives that had been slated to launch “in 2028 and past.” Specifics weren’t revealed on the time however one recognized cancellation is the D&D recreation that was being developed by Stig Asmussen’s Big Cranium studio; a big-budget GI Joe recreation introduced in 2021 additionally seems to be in bother, though Hasbro stated earlier this 12 months that it has not been cancelled.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks stated on the time that 2026 needs to be the corporate’s “peak 12 months for digital funding,” and that it is aiming to scale back its “digital spend” by not less than 25% by 2028. To my studying, that factors to a pullback from typical videogame growth, which—solely speculatively—might have impacted Hight’s place: His job description on the Hasbro administration web page says that together with overseeing tabletop and digital growth of Magic: The Gathering and D&D, “he additionally oversees the event of authentic and licensed videogames primarily based on Hasbro’s broader model portfolio.”
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In an announcement supplied to GamesIndustry, Wizards of the Coast stated it’s “deeply grateful for [Hight’s] management and the contributions he is made to our groups and our video games throughout his tenure. John will proceed to assist Wizards in an advisory capability whereas pursuing different inventive {and professional} alternatives he is keen about.
“There isn’t a change to the energy of the Wizards enterprise. Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons proceed to carry out extremely effectively, in step with our most up-to-date earnings launch, and our upcoming 2027 videogame slate, together with Exodus and Warlock stays on monitor.”
Wizards is now “launching an inner and exterior seek for John’s successor.”
