D&D Boss Officially Named Head of Wizards of the Coast

Published Oct 27, 2026, 11:59 AM EDT Willa Rowe is a contributing writer at Polygon, covering games and entertainment. She is a New York-based journalist and critic whose work has been featured in Kotaku, Digital Trends, the A.V. Club, GamesRadar+, and more. She also co-hosts the Girl Mode podcast. Hasbro finally finds new president for Magic: The Gathering and D&D company Image: Wizards of the Coast Sign in to your Polygon.com account Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, has been without a president for nearly two months. At the start of September, former president John Hight moved to an advisory role while Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks assumed oversight of Wizards of the Coast during the search for a new president. That search is finally over, and Dan Ayoub has been named the company's new president. Hasbro announced the news in a news release on Oct. 27, revealing that Ayoub will become president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, effective Nov. 2. Ayoub most recently served as the senior vice president of D&D. He joined Wizards of the Coast in 2022 to lead the company's digital studios and also served as senior vice president of Digital Games, for a time. Before that, Ayoub also served as an executive producer and studio head at Halo developer 343 Industries. Regarding his new position, Ayoub said this in an official statement: “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.” Given Ayoub's resume, it seems like Hasbro wants Wizards of the Coast to invest even more in digital and video games than it already does. What video games is Wizards of the Coast working on? Image: Archetype Entertainment/Wizards of the Coast Hasbro already has Wizards of the Coast hard at work on several upcoming games. In light of recent news that Mass Effect studio BioWare has been shut down by EA, Exodus has attracted even more interest. The game is developed by Wizards of the Coast's division Archetype Entertainment, a developer studio headed by BioWare and Baldur's Gate series veteran James Ohlen. Exodus is one of two upcoming games (the other being The Expanse: Osiris Reborn) positioned as spiritual successors to Mass Effect. Exodus is set to be a sprawling sci-fi RPG about exploring space and building relationships with companions. The game is slated for release on April 7, 2027. More in line with what people might expect from Wizards of the Coast is Warlock, developed by Invoke Studios. Warlock is a single-player Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure game. The game sounds ambitious but also kind of gives Forspoken-vibes in gameplay footage we've seen so far. Warlock has a 2027 release window. Hasbro has also made it clear it wants to make a Baldur's Gate 4 eventually, though there are no hard plans for it at the moment.