Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot dies in plane
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- Claude Guillemot died Friday at age 69 in a plane crash in La Baule, France, according to French media reports cited by Bloomberg; both people aboard the aircraft perished.
- Ubisoft, the French video game company Guillemot co-founded with his four brothers in 1986, published the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Prince of Persia, and Tom Clancy franchises under his co-founding tenure.
- The Guillemot family retains control of Ubisoft, with Claude's brother Yves still serving as CEO, meaning the company's ownership structure remains in family hands despite the founder's death.
- Guillemot Corp., a separate company chaired by Claude that manufactures gaming and audio accessories, also loses its chairman in the crash.
- Ubisoft issued a formal statement saying it was "deeply saddened" by the death and offered condolences to his family, while noting it would make no further public statements at this time.
Why it matters: Claude Guillemot was one of five brothers who built and still control Ubisoft, a major publicly traded game publisher, and his death removes a co-founder while leaving the family's ownership stake and Yves Guillemot's CEO role intact — preserving the current corporate structure. The crash also claims the chairman of the separately listed Guillemot Corp., a gaming accessories maker, meaning a single founder's death affects two distinct companies.
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