Wizards of the Coast and D&D Team Hit By New Round of Layoffs
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Hasbro has just announced a new round of company-wide layoffs that has reached Wizards of the Coast and the Dungeons & Dragons team. The move is part of what Hasbro has described as an “operational streamlining” and is expected to impact roughly 100 employees across the company.
The news comes less than a year after Hasbro’s last round of layoffs in December 2023, which saw 20% of the company’s global workforce let go and a major restructuring of the Wizards of the Coast team. It also comes during a pivotal year for D&D, as the game celebrates its 50th anniversary and the launch of a set of new DnD core books.
So just what does this mean for the future of Dungeons & Dragons? Below, we break out all the details.
Why did the layoffs happen?
According to Hasbro, these changes are designed to “increase speed-to-market by trimming at least three months from the process while empowering teams to make decisions quickly.” In reality, however, the likely cause is that the company has struggled financially in recent years, with slowing toy sales dragging down revenue, despite the profitability of digital products and Wizards of the Coast’s flagship games of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.
In fact, during their most recent Q3 earnings report, which was released on October 24th, 2024, Hasbro announced that overall company revenue had declined 15%. The report also noted that Wizards of the Coast and the Digital Gaming segment declined 5%, with revenue dropping off in particular from the Baldur’s Gate 3 licensing deal as sales of the popular game slowed.
Who was laid off from the Dungeons & Dragons Team?
Early reports indicate that at least four people have been laid off from Wizards of the Coast. This includes D&D Creator Relations Manager Dixon Dubow, who was the primary point of contact for numerous D&D content creators and was instrumental in helping to address community concerns in the wake of the OGL scandal back in 2023.
In addition to the layoffs, there have also been a number of major role changes among the leadership team as Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. In particular Chief Marketing Officer Jason Bunge will now oversee Wizards of the Coast’s digital marketing efforts.
Final Thoughts
As far as layoffs go, the latest round from Hasbro wasn’t nearly as devastating as last year. That’s not likely much comfort, however, to individuals let go from the Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons teams. It’s also not likely to go over well with fans who are still bitter over the OGL scandal and other recent missteps from Hasbro.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
