WotC WotC President Cynthia Williams Resigns

Cynthia Williams, who has been president of Wizards of the Coast for the last two years, will be leaving the company at the end of the month, according to an SEC filing dated April 15th. Hasbro is already looking for somebody to step into the role.

Williams worked for Microsoft on the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team before joining WotC two years ago, stepping into the role that then-president Chris Cocks vacated when he was promoted to CEO of Hasbro in February 2022.

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On April 15, 2024, Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, informed the Company of her resignation from the Company effective April 26, 2024. The Company is conducting a process to identify her successor, looking at both internal and external candidates.

According to Rascal News, WotC responded with a comment: "We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon."

 

[Oofta]

I mean, kind of. I'll likely never get over what they did to Magic, and I would make an absolute spectacle of myself if locked in a room with Maro and Forsythe. Hell, I don't know if they are still involved in Magic, and I would still act like a fool. I can't even talk about it in public with guys that agree with me, and it's been over 6 years.

Well, my exposure to MtG is a single game I played shortly after it was released so I don't really have an opinion on that. It's also a bit different because my understanding, limited though it is, that it's been multiple issues repeated over the course of the past couple of years.

 

[LesserThan]

Make sense. She's the SECOND Cynthia Williams to mess up the industry (The first being back in the 80s). Coincidentally. That OGL fiasco was unnecessary.

Who was the first, and what industry?

T$R was Lorraine Williams.
WotC was Cynthia W Williams.
No relation.

 

[mamba]

So it becomes funny when people blame her for more than her comments

I agree, she was there two years, much of what happened during them was in flight already when she arrived, her impact, if any, is more in the future. I doubt we will ever know what impact she had however, the most I think there is that the VTT is still in limbo and not further along

 

[Parmandur]

I doubt they have a good handle on why someone is not buying something. They certainly know what their sales are, and at a minimum 2023 ended 5e's growth, but as to why it did / how much or little the OGL contributed to that... I have my doubts that they know

That has nothing to do with what Cocks said. Precise quote from earlier this month:

"If you look at 'Dungeons & Dragons'...more people are playing these games than ever before. Our satisfaction rates, the happiness that players have, are higher than ever."

So, more people are playing and are more satisfied from Hasbro's PoV. So, just saying, doubt that Williams leaving has anything to do with the OGL or any other performance issue.

 

[Parmandur]

Not saying that you're wrong, but there is zero chance that Cocks in that NPR interview would have admitted any damage from OGLGate, regardless of whether there was any or not.

True, but he didn't address it directly: he just pointed out that they have more customers who are measurably happier than they were prior to the OGL.

 

[michaeljpastor]

Mod Note:

Gee whiz, y’all! I didn’t realize there was a knife party scheduled for mid-April.

Let’s can the nasty commentary, please.

Beware the Ides of April?

 

[SteveC]

I agree, she was there two years, much of what happened during them was in flight already when she arrived, her impact, if any, is more in the future. I doubt we will ever know what impact she had however, the most I think there is that the VTT is still in limbo and not further along

I think it's way past time to move this back to talk about Williams resigning, so I think I appreciate what you did here. For me, if you're the President/CEO or at that level, everything that happens while you're there is on you. I know you'll take credit for the good things (like BG3) that have nothing to do with you, but you have to take the sour with the sweet.

And you're 100% right: the impact of the things she did will be felt going forward. Whoever is in their next will (perhaps unfairly) get the blame or praise for those actions, and it will be like that for a while. I don't envy the next person who steps into that role.

 

[LesserThan]

I agree, she was there two years, much of what happened during them was in flight already when she arrived, her impact, if any, is more in the future. I doubt we will ever know what impact she had however, the most I think there is that the VTT is still in limbo and not further along

As the only other person so far that understands time as a scale, do you think she orcherstrated the purchase of Beyond from Fandom, or would that also have been something begun prior to her starting? I do not know when that purchase was made. I do not know when the WotC office move to Bellvue from Renton occured, nor when the VTT "350" programmers were hired.

All I "know" is speculation there was an internal war between Kyle Brink, Chris Cao, and Ray Winger. Unlikely Cao, who seems to oppose Beyond, made the, "They won and so did we" post on Beyond. I think Winger was gone before that, also.

Did Williams do anything other than some bad PR and attend 2 Qx Earnings calls?

 

[Dire Bare]

Beware the Ides of April?

Early bird gets the knife.

 

[mamba]

That has nothing to do with what Cocks said. Precise quote from earlier this month:

"If you look at 'Dungeons & Dragons'...more people are playing these games than ever before. Our satisfaction rates, the happiness that players have, are higher than ever."

no disagreement with that, this could very well be true. That does not mean the OGL had no impact however, just that it had no impact so large that the number of players noticeably dropped.

So, more people are playing and are more satisfied from Hasbro's PoV. So, just saying, doubt that Williams leaving has anything to do with the OGL or any other performance issue.

agreed, as I said earlier, it is not because of the OGL, the timing is wrong for that and so is the rushed timeframe of two weeks notice. That makes it sound like it is personal or a great job opportunity that could not wait - I assume the former is more likely... If it has anything to do with D&D, my bet is on the VTT over anything else