In Memoriam: Ubisoft Co-Founder Claude Guillemot
In Memoriam: Ubisoft Co-Founder Claude Guillemot
A brief tribute to the man who helped create one of biggest forces in gaming.
Claude Guillemot, who co-founded Ubisoft nearly 40 years with his four brothers, was killed in a plane crash over the weekend. Although you won’t find Guillemot’s name in the credits of any game, he nevertheless had a considerable impact on the medium during his lifetime.
Like a lot of early business figures, the Guillemots became involved in video games as a side effect of running a software company. The family established a mail-order software business in the 1980s. Once they realized that the lion’s share of their profits came from games, they shifted their focus not only to distributing games but also to making them. Ubisoft became one of the earliest development studios based in France, not only catering specifically to the tastes and interests of that audience but also serving as an incubator for budding French development talent.
Zombi, the Commodore 64 of Ubisoft’s innovative first release back in 1986. Source: mobygames.com
The company’s investment in creativity and talent paid off: Ubisoft’s first release, an Amstrad CPC adventure called Zombi, offered a fresh take on the horror genre and hinted at things to come many years later, such as Left 4 Dead. Ubisoft built a sizable portfolio of computer releases across a wide variety of platforms, including both original works and games localized from international licensors, and eventually branched out into the console business by releasing cartridges for NES, Super NES, and Game Boy in the early 1990s. That paved the way for the company’s big international breakthrough title, 1995’s Rayman for Saturn, Jaguar, and PlayStation: a game that pushed back against the prevailing wisdom that only 3D graphics mattered by raising the bar for spritework and bitmap art.
Ubisoft continues to produce great games 40 years later, such as 2024’s inventive metroidvania Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
Rayman became a huge success, and the company followed with more great original titles (Beyond Good & Evil and the Tom Clancy series) while also further diversifying its portfolio with interesting efforts like localizing Japanese RPGs and niche games into international markets. By the time the high-definition console generation launched, Ubisoft had become one of the biggest and most successful game publishers in history. According to Reuters, Guillemot played a key role in that success, working in an operational and support capacity to guide the company’s expansion for four decades. His brother Yves has credited him with being the true visionary who helped set Ubisoft on its course into tech and gaming in the first place.
As a publishing partner to Ubisoft, Limited Run Games is saddened to learn of Guillemot’s passing and wishes his family and friends our condolences for their loss.