Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games have a new boss, and it's kind of the old boss. Dan Ayoub, who spent the past couple years as senior vice president of digital games at Wizards, has been promoted to the big chair, where he'll head up Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Duel Masters, and Hasbro Digital Games.
Ayoub will take the place of John Hight, who left the position in July after just two years on the job. On the videogame-specific side of things, Ayoub will now oversee two major projects in development: The Mass Effect-like sci-fi RPG Exodus being developed by Archetype Entertainment, and the third-person action-adventure Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons, being made by Invoke Studios.
"[Ayoub] was selected after a rigorous search that evaluated dozens of internal and external candidates," Hasbro said. "He is the first internal candidate promoted into the role."
Ayoub has real experience in the biz: Prior to joining Wizards of the Coast, he served as executive producer and studio head at Halo studio 343 Industries, and also spent more than a year as vice president and general manager of co-development studio Certain Affinity.
"I'm honored to lead Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, and grateful to Chris [Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks] and the leadership team for this opportunity," Ayoub said. "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. 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. I can't wait to get started."
But he also comes into the new role at a challenging time. Despite going hard on videogames in the immediate aftermath of Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro has struggled to actually follow up on it: The company recorded a $56 million non-cash impairment earlier this year arising from the cancellation of several games in development that were expected to release "in 2028 and beyond."
Potentially complicating matters further, Cocks, the Hasbro CEO, is a vocal AI enthusiast. He recently indicated that he wasn't pushing to incorporate it in Hasbro games because people "just don't want it," he was also clear that he views widespread generative AI use as the inevitable future: "You can't ignore it, you can't stick your head in the sand." In that light, Ayoub's remark about respecting "artists and creators" might be seen as a little more meaningful—but how that holds up in the long run, we will have to wait and see.
