Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died. According to Ouest France, the death was the result of a light airplane crash in La Baule, with one other casualty aside from Guillemot. According to the report, the crash took place on the afternoon of June 19th near La Baule airport.
Loire-Atlantique firefighters said that, when they got to the scene, “the aircraft was on fire with the fire spreading to the surrounding vegetation.” Mayor of La Baule, Franck Louvrier, has said that the aircraft was a “Cessna 421, a twin-engine propeller plane with eight seats, which departed from Rennes,” according to Ici Loire Océan.
“[We] learned with great sadness of the death of Claude Guillemot, co-founder of the Group and President of Guillemot Corporation, in an accident,” said Ubisoft in a statement to the press. “Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time. No further communication will be made at this stage.”
Claude was one of the five Guillemot brothers – Christian, Gérard, Michel, and Yves – who founded Ubisoft all the way back in 1986. At the time of his death, Claude worked as the chairperson for Guillemot Corporation – an entirely separate business entity from Ubisoft that specializes in hardware products through its three brands: Hercules, Thrustmaster, and Djuced.
The founding of Ubisoft revolved largely around the five brothers, as part of running their family business of selling agricultural products, started looking at ways to diversify the business. Claude made one of the first moves by selling audio CDs, before the brothers would eventually team up and massively expand the business by also dabbling in selling software.
In an interesting turn of events, they started noticing that the costs they were taking on by buying computers and software from a French supplier were higher than if they were to buy them in the UK instead and then just ship them to France. The first incarnation of this business would be known as 1984’s Guillemot Informatique, which sold software products through mail order. Guillemot Corporation was founded in the following year to distribute hardware.
With the five brothers noticing that video game software products were particularly profitable, and demand for their products also growing, they made the decision to found a video game development company, dubbed Ubi Soft Entertainment S.A., with the name being shorthand for ubiquitous software.
At the time, Ubisoft had published games like Zombi, Ciné Clap, Fer et Flamme, and Masque. With early success seen by Zombi, Ubi Soft started entering distribution partnership with companies from other countries, like Spain and West Germany. The company also acted as a publisher by importing games like Commando and Ikari Warriors.
Ubi Soft would become a publicly traded company with its IPO (initial public offering) taking place in 1996, which raised more than $80 million in funds. The same time period would also see the company expanding its development operations in other countries, opening up studios in Milan, Montreal, Shanghai, and Annecy.
Since then, Ubisoft has gone on to become one of the biggest companies in the world, with major franchises like Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed under its belt.