Sad news for the video games industry, and particularly for Ubisoft and the Guillemot family. Claude Guillemot, one of the five brothers who founded Ubisoft in 1986, has died at the age of 69 after the training light aircraft he was flying crashed, according to France 3. The Cessna 421, a twin-engine propeller aircraft he owned, in which he was travelling with a flight instructor whose identity has not been disclosed, crashed on the afternoon of Friday, 19 June near La Baule airport, in the Pays de la Loire region of France.
Claude Guillemot was a key figure in Ubisoft's rise, taking the company from a small shop opened in 1984 to the formation in 1986 of a firm which, through gradual growth throughout the 1990s and 2000s, established itself as one of the world's largest video game companies, with studios spread across the globe and a portfolio of IPs including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Just Dance, and Rainbow Six.
Until yesterday, Guillemot continued to serve as Ubisoft's executive vice-president of operations, as well as CEO of Thrustmaster and Hercules, the two companies specialising in the sale of PC peripherals.
Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones at this difficult time.