The gaming industry has been hit by sad news.
According to available information, Claude Guillemot, one of the co-founders of Ubisoft, died in a plane crash on Friday in western France.
Guillemot was piloting a private aircraft, the Cessna 421B Golden Eagle, which had one other passenger on board. The plane crashed while approaching La Baule-Escoublac Airfield. Details about the cause of the accident have not yet been released, and the relevant French authorities have launched an investigation to determine the circumstances of the crash.
Although Claude Guillemot was less known to the general public than his brother Yves Guillemot, his contribution to the development of Ubisoft was immense. In the early 1980s, the Guillemot family ran a successful agricultural supply company in Brittany, France. However, when the five brothers - Claude, Christian, Gérard, Michel, and Yves - returned from their studies in economics and technology, they realized that the family business no longer offered enough room for growth.
In search of new business opportunities, they turned to the then-growing electronics market. Claude initially experimented with selling music CDs, but the brothers quickly recognized a much greater potential in home computers and computer software.
As computers and games were extremely expensive in France at the time due to imports from the UK and the United States, they joined forces to establish Guillemot Informatique, a company specialized in selling computer hardware and software through mail order. By cutting out the middleman, they were able to offer significantly lower prices and build a successful national business in a very short time. This success laid the foundation for the establishment of Ubisoft in 1986. The company's name originated from the term "Ubi Soft", meaning "ubiquitous software," reflecting the brothers' ambition for their software to be available to everyone.
While Yves Guillemot became the face of the company for years as its CEO, Claude operated far from the spotlight, connecting the business and technological side of the family empire. With a degree in economics and a specialization in industrial computing, he also served as the president of Guillemot Corporation, which he transformed into one of the world's most recognized distributors of gaming hardware through the brands Thrustmaster and Hercules.
Until his last days, he remained the executive vice president of operations and a member of the board of directors of Ubisoft, actively participating in the development of the company he helped create nearly four decades ago.
Ubisoft has not yet made an official statement regarding the tragedy.
The passing of Claude Guillemot represents a significant loss not only for Ubisoft but for the entire gaming industry. His work may not have often been in the spotlight, but without his vision and business acumen, it is hard to imagine that Ubisoft would have grown from a small family company into one of the world's largest video game publishers, responsible for franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, and The Division.
