Hasbro has named Dan Ayoub as new president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, leading Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and future games like Exodus and Warlock.
In a press release, Hasbro confirms that Ayoub was "selected after a rigorous search that evaluated dozens of internal and external candidates." Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks says, "He understands what our games mean to the people who play them and what it takes to build great teams and experiences." Previous president John Hight announced he was stepping down earlier this year.
Wizards of the Coast currently has two major games in production with sci-fi RPG Exodus at Archetype Entertainment and third-person action game Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons at Invoke Studios.
Ayoub has been in the games industry for 25 years, with his credits including producer roles at Ubisoft and EA, an 11 year stint at Microsoft as the studio head of Halo developer 343 Industries, as well as vice president and general manager of Certain Affinity. He joined Wizards of the Coast in 2022, and was senior vice president of digital games and Dungeons & Dragons before this promotion.
Ayoub says, "I'm honored to lead Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, and grateful to Chris and the leadership team for this opportunity." He adds, "Magic and D&D have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and the teams behind them are among the best in the world," and pledges, "We'll put fans first, respect the artists and creators who make these worlds come alive, and set an ambitious course for growth across tabletop and digital."
Of course, this comes weeks after the D&D and Magic The Gathering developers unionized, claiming that Wizards of the Coast is pushing "adoption of LLMs and generative AI," with the company not voluntarily recognizing the union efforts by its October 13th deadline.
