https://investor.hasbro.com/node/36526/html

Will be interesting to see who is next.

Hmmm. I wonder if she's upset with the way that video games was stripped out from beneath her.

OR did she just get too expensive, lol

Not going to be sorry to see her go.  There has been a lot of good that has happened under her tenure - the acquisition of D&D Beyond, the D&D movie’s release, increased work with third party publishers (like CR and Hitpoint Press) - there also have been some staggering failures in leadership. The OGL issue immediately comes to mind - where Wizards failed to respond to the story and allowed misinformation, disinformation, and speculation (not to mention active racism) to define the conversation.  What could have been a fairly minor issue became a major one due to her distinct lack of leadership.

There have been other missteps. Wizards’ finances are a bit of a mess right now, in part due to her own policies.  Look at Magic, for example / it had a stellar year in terms of revenue… but the licensing fees for their Universes Beyond products (Magic cards with others’ IP, like Warhammer or Doctor Who) obliterated revenue.  

While I do not think she has been as bad as many on this forum like to say, she has hardly been great for the games under her control nor has she been all that effective a leader.  Most importantly, she seems to have a pretty tenuous grasp of the psychology of her games’ player base - and this lack of knowledge has resulted in some major PR failings under her direction.  All told, I am optimistic about what comes next - though only time will tell.

What i find interesting is the search for a new President -- as Caerwyn noted, she lacked an real connection to the games she oversaw, and in action and deed demonstrated a stunning lack of awareness of the consumers her segment represents across different product lines.

The shifting of the Digital Gaming segment out from underneath her stewardship is likely one thing, and the known challenges are others.

However, finding someone to replace her could be a hard thing -- there really aren't many folks who can handle c-suite level stuff and are still very active in the game for a corporation of this size and level. I've been c-suite myself at different companies, but even I would be a bit hesitant to tackle that role -- a billion dollars a year is a high mark to keep in line (that's the revenue of her segment last year, after all), especially when you have to grow it in double digits (10% or more) year after year.

to do that is going to take someone who understands the product assortment and value basis, as well as the consumer mindset -- so while they could do something like give Perkins or Crawford the job, I don't see them as being able to take on the key aspects of that role outside of the game stuff, and the same goes for the leads on the magic side.

Plus they are going to be coming in in the middle of a big ole anniversary deal and an existing long term project (one D&D) -- that's a high bar.

THen you factor in that the suits who would make that decision are mostly folks who have just as little awareness of the same issues -- Cocks is going to push even more of his stuff into it, and then you have the folks who made the call to try the stunt with the OGL, lol. 

That said, maybe I should get brave and polish up my resume anyway, eh? (insert hilarity here)

Maybe the true impact of the whole OGL whatever is just starting to be felt?

   I mean it has been what a year ago. Subs do tend to run out and people ether forget to resub or decline to do so.

Quote from BaxterNewgate >>

Maybe the true impact of the whole OGL whatever is just starting to be felt?

   I mean it has been what a year ago. Subs do tend to run out and people ether forget to resub or decline to do so.

 
Any effects were probably felt long ago - it has been over a year and, when it comes down to it, the OGL issue was always more of a PR/vocal minority problem than a true game one (if you compare the OneD&D surveys to the OGL one, the OGL survey was voted on by tens of thousands of fewer players, indicating strongly the community as a whole did not care as much about it as they did about the game itself).

Far more likely - Wizards’ Q4 2023 and end of year financials were not great.  The Q1 2024 financials are scheduled to be released two days before Williams’ last day - and there is reason to expect they will be really bad (not propped up by BG3 as much; few major Magic or D&D releases to give significant cash inflow). If her performance was a factor in her leaving (which we do not know), the largest contributing factor is likely these recent and expected financial disclosures.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Not going to be sorry to see her go.  There has been a lot of good that has happened under her tenure - the acquisition of D&D Beyond, the D&D movie’s release, increased work with third party publishers (like CR and Hitpoint Press) - there also have been some staggering failures in leadership. The OGL issue immediately comes to mind - where Wizards failed to respond to the story and allowed misinformation, disinformation, and speculation (not to mention active racism) to define the conversation.  What could have been a fairly minor issue became a major one due to her distinct lack of leadership.

There have been other missteps. Wizards’ finances are a bit of a mess right now, in part due to her own policies.  Look at Magic, for example / it had a stellar year in terms of revenue… but the licensing fees for their Universes Beyond products (Magic cards with others’ IP, like Warhammer or Doctor Who) obliterated revenue.  

While I do not think she has been as bad as many on this forum like to say, she has hardly been great for the games under her control nor has she been all that effective a leader.  Most importantly, she seems to have a pretty tenuous grasp of the psychology of her games’ player base - and this lack of knowledge has resulted in some major PR failings under her direction.  All told, I am optimistic about what comes next - though only time will tell.

 The Pinkerton MTG thing happened under her watch too - again,  something that didn't need to be nearly as newsworthy (a fan getting an unreleased box of packs a couple of weeks early, an utterly banal occurrence that has happened many times in TCG history) as it was, and which nearly resulted in a violent home invasion.

Quote from BaxterNewgate >>

Maybe the true impact of the whole OGL whatever is just starting to be felt?

   I mean it has been what a year ago. Subs do tend to run out and people ether forget to resub or decline to do so.

I doubt this; Per Cox on the Q2 investor call, DDB subs actually went up. Almost certainly by less than they would have with no scandal(s), but again, the stuff they say on those calls is audited and discoverable.

I'm curious who will be next. More than anything, that's the most impactful known unknown that we have today.

...I'll do it naturally :)

Honestly, I’m cynical enough that I don’t expect any radical changes in policy to come from this. Some new suit will get the job, and hopefully they’ll at least be better at keeping on top of PR. Granted, they’re also probably gonna have an easy quarter or two teed up with the new core books coming out late this year and early next year.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Honestly, I’m cynical enough that I don’t expect any radical changes in policy to come from this.

 Not sure why you consider that cynical, given that there isn't currently any evidence that she was pushed out due to a known policy disagreement. A new president will have new policies due to being a different person, but unless you see stuff about "looking for a change in direction"... they probably aren't.

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Honestly, I’m cynical enough that I don’t expect any radical changes in policy to come from this.

 Not sure why you consider that cynical, given that there isn't currently any evidence that she was pushed out due to a known policy disagreement. A new president will have new policies due to being a different person, but unless you see stuff about "looking for a change in direction"... they probably aren't.

 
I dunno, thought it sounded good I guess.