Announcement
I wonder what caused them to replace Greg Leeds. Maybe the subpar management of the Online department? Hasbro seemed quite displeased with MTGO, compared to Hearthstone's insane money making. (MtG total revenue was like what? 250 million $ total for Paper + Online? While Hearthstone alone pulled 440+ million $ last year).Chris Cocks Joins as President of Wizards of the Coast from Microsoft
PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hasbro, Inc. today announced that Greg Leeds has resigned as President of Wizards of the Coast, and will be replaced by Chris Cocks who joins the company from Microsoft. Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, offers games and entertainment under world-renowned brands such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUEL MASTERS. Leeds has served as the President of Wizards of the Coast since 2008, and started at Hasbro in 2001. He will stay on to ensure a smooth transition to Cocks, who will officially join the team in Seattle on June 6.
"We are incredibly thankful to Greg for the tremendous contributions he has made to Hasbro, especially during his time leading Wizards of the Coast," said John Frascotti, President, Hasbro Brands. "Today, thanks to Greg's commitment and passion, Wizards of the Coast's brands are stronger than ever. Though MAGIC: THE GATHERING was introduced more than 20 years ago, it is more relevant and popular today than it's ever been, with a record number of people around the world playing the game and participating in MAGIC organized play events."
Leeds will be replaced by Chris Cocks, who most recently served as Vice President, OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft Corporation, where he led a global sales and technical engagement team. Prior to his eight-year tenure with Microsoft, Chris served as Vice President of Educational Games at LeapFrog, where he led a cross-discipline team to drive hardware planning, software design and development, marketing and channel management. He began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble and served in product management and marketing leadership positions in Xbox and MSN, including work on hit franchises like Halo and Fable, prior to joining Leapfrog. Cocks is an avid player and fan of Wizards of the Coast brands, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.
"We're very excited to welcome Chris to the Wizards of the Coast family," said Frascotti. "As an avid fan and player with extensive digital experience, I'm confident Chris is the right person to help us build on the tremendous momentum around our brands and take the franchise to the next level by delivering exciting new experiences to our growing and passionate fan base around the world."
It's interesting that they chose a tech guy, given their big plans for 2017 (release of Magic Digital Next, whatever that may be).
It's exciting that they have chosen someone who comes from a more technological background, hopefully this means that Hasbro is going to push more of their software based products. Seems like he is a big fan of WoTC products which seems like a plus (although I guess everyone is going to say something like that when they join on in a high position).
I don't think it would be that easy.
I assume he's there to strengthen their digital department. No Android/OS X support and the sad state of MTGO is losing them tons of potential money.
My personal hope is that he weeds out all the incompetent chucklefucks, although that is unlikely. Raging nepotism is a huge problem at WotC that is holding back the company imho.
Welp, we're fucked.Vice President, OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft Corporation
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
I hope this means the finally do MTGO justice.
Wow..., a guy from Microsoft, that means MTGO will be forever on Windows, never Mac.
Day 1 of new WotC president tour of the offices:
CC: "So what's MTGO built on?"
WW: "dot NET framework"
CC: "... I'll be expecting a resignation letter by close of business."
West side
Find me on MTGO as Koby or rukcus -- @MTGKoby on Twitter
* Maverick is dead. Long live Maverick!
My Legacy stream
My MTG Blog - Work in progress
Hasbro already announced a new digital version of the game a few months back that's supposed to replace both MTGO and Duels. Could actually work if they build a team from scratch, put the budget up to hire real software devs, and keep it somewhat independent of Wizards' bureaucracy.
“It's possible. But it involves... {checks archives} Nature's Revolt, Opalescence, two Unstable Shapeshifters (one of which started as a Doppelganger), a Tide, an animated land, a creature with Fading, a Silver Wyvern, some way to get a creature into play in response to stuff, some way to get a land into play in response to stuff (a different land from the animated land), and one heck of a Rube Goldberg timing diagram.”
-David DeLaney
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
West side
Find me on MTGO as Koby or rukcus -- @MTGKoby on Twitter
* Maverick is dead. Long live Maverick!
My Legacy stream
My MTG Blog - Work in progress
Hasbro had ~65 million $ increased expenses in a sector last year which they mainly attributed to the development of Magic Digital Next. They expect alot of money coming from it starting 2017, with decreased expenses starting 2018. To me, it sounds like they hired an outside software team which they are going to lay off after the release of Magic Digital Next.
Paying way under industry standard and regularly firing people related to MTGO in less than a year to avoid additional obligations are shitty practices based on corporate culture for whom the man in charge is responsible. Here's hope for a change of direction.
Even if it's a Microsoft guy, I don't think Hasbro would hire someone that makes them miss another round in the Android & OS X market.
So appearently Wizards is looking for two programmers with Unity experience. Looks like Magic Digital Next is built in Unity. Is that a good or bad thing? I've heard very mixed results about that engine.
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