Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died at 69

Claude Guillemot, one of the five brothers who founded Ubisoft and the long-time CEO of Guillemot Corporation, died Friday in a plane crash. He was 69 years old.

The crash occurred on June 19, 2026. According to TMZ, Guillemot was piloting the aircraft when it went down in La Baule-Escoublac, a commune in western France. Ubisoft confirmed his passing in a statement to French media outlets, offering their thoughts and prayers to his family.

From distribution to development

The Guillemot family originally worked in agricultural support before pivoting to computer hardware and software distribution in the mid-1980s. Claude, along with his brothers Christian, Gérard, Michel, and Yves, officially formed Ubisoft Entertainment SA in March 1986. They recognized early on that the European video game market was poised for massive growth.

They did not stay purely in distribution for long. By the end of the decade, the brothers began hiring programmers and artists to create original titles. Their early output included games like Zombi, which helped establish their reputation in Europe. This foundation eventually allowed Ubisoft to grow into one of the largest third-party publishers in the world. Today, the company is responsible for massive global franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Just Dance, alongside classic platformers like Rayman.

The Thrustmaster era

Yves Guillemot became the public face of Ubisoft as its CEO. Claude spent much of his career leading the family's hardware ventures. He served as the Chairman and CEO of Guillemot Corporation, a separate entity established in 1984 that focused entirely on peripherals and audio equipment.

Guillemot Corporation acquired the Thrustmaster brand in 1999. Under Claude's direction, the company became a dominant force in simulation hardware. They built exact replicas of Ferrari steering wheels and U.S. Air Force flight controls. These devices catered to a niche of simulation enthusiasts that standard console controllers simply could not satisfy.

A few years later, the company acquired Hercules, a name that was once synonymous with PC graphics and audio. Claude guided the Hercules brand through the decline of the dedicated PC sound card market, successfully pivoting the division into digital DJ controllers and audio monitors.

Building the French games industry

It is hard to overstate how important Guillemot Corporation was to the PC simulation boom of the early 2000s, and they remain a staple in the sim racing community today.

The Guillemot brothers effectively built the modern French video game industry from the ground up. They operated as a unified front for forty years. The brothers famously maintained a unified voting block that successfully defended Ubisoft from a hostile takeover attempt by Vivendi in the 2010s. Claude's death is a sudden and tragic loss for his family, the company he helped build, and the broader European technology sector.