When we mention Ubisoft, the name of Yves Guillemot naturally comes to mind. However, the story of the group is that of siblings. Claude Guillemot, who died at the age of 69 in a plane crash near La Baule, belonged to the founding core who transformed a Breton family business into one of the largest video game publishers in the world.
Born on October 30, 1956 in Carentoir, in Morbihan, he is the eldest of the five Guillemot brothers. Son of Yvette and Marcel Guillemot, agricultural traders, he grew up in an environment where the notions of management, commerce and collective work were part of everyday life. Like his brothers Yves, Michel, Gérard and Christian, he participated very early in the activities of the family business.
At the beginning of the 1980s, when the agricultural business was going through a difficult period, Claude Guillemot helped initiate a diversification that would change the destiny of the family. During a trip to the United Kingdom, he noticed that software and video games were sold there at prices significantly lower than those in France. With his brothers, he launched a mail order and then video game distribution business. This activity is experiencing rapid growth and constitutes the real starting point of the Ubisoft adventure.
In March 1986, the five brothers founded Ubisoft with the ambition of no longer just distributing other people’s games but of creating their own. The company is gradually moving from the status of importer to that of publisher and then developer. Rayman’s success in the mid-1990s, driven by the arrival of the first PlayStation, propelled the group onto the international scene.
Claude plays a discreet but essential role within the company and specializes in the group’s operational and industrial activities. At the head of Guillemot Corporation, he developed an international player in computer accessories and peripherals, notably owner of the Thrustmaster and Hercules brands. Under his leadership, the company expanded its activities in Europe, North America and China, while becoming a recognized partner of the video game industry.
The Guillemot brothers have built an atypical model based on an equal distribution of capital and responsibilities. Everyone directs their own activities while participating in the group’s major strategic decisions. For several decades, they met regularly to coordinate their positions and support the growth of a player that had become global.
When Ubisoft reached more than 10,000 employees spread across twenty countries, Claude Guillemot continued to represent this entrepreneurial culture born in the Breton countryside. In 2025, he handed over operational management of Guillemot Corporation to his son Valentin, thus beginning the transition to a new generation.
Passionate about aviation, Claude Guillemot died on June 19 at the age of 69 in the crash of a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle on approach to the La Baule-Escoublac aerodrome, where he was to take part in an air show.
His death marks that of an entrepreneur who participated in the emergence of one of the rare European champions of digital entertainment and in the history of a family that became one of the most unique dynasties in French technology.
His disappearance sparked numerous reactions in the French digital ecosystem. The Minister Delegate in charge of Digital, Anne Le Hénanffsaluted the memory of “a pioneer” of the French video game industry. “With his brothers, he built from Brittany one of the most influential studios in the world, behind franchises that have become cult like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, Rayman and Just Dance. So many universes which bring together hundreds of millions of players and have raised France to the top of the global video game industry,” she declared, sending her condolences to her family, loved ones and all of her colleagues.
