Insider Gaming has learned that Yves Guillemot’s son, Charlie Guillemot will be returning to the company following his departure in 2021.
According to the internal email sent to Insider Gaming, Charlie Guillemot will be re-joining the company to join forces with Marie-Sophie de Waubert to lead the company’s Transformation Committee.
The committee, which consists of 10 members is said to “guide the evolution of our [Ubisoft’s] brands and studios over the next 100 days”, the email reads.
It’s a move that has been met with criticism from employees, who tell Insider Gaming that the majority of the members within the Committee are the one’s responsible for Ubisoft’s current state.
Charlie Guillemot in particular got his fair share of criticism from employees, who questioned his qualifications and the Guiellmot’s capabilities on leading Ubisoft to a brighter future.
Charlie co-led Ubisoft Owlient with Rémi Pellerin since 2014, but both left Ubisoft in 2021 to “pursue new opportunities”, which including being the CEO of a web3 gaming company called Unagi.
However, within the company Charlie was also heavily criticised for being responsible for one of Ubisoft’s being controversies in 2020, where the company used Black Lives Matter imagery in association with an in-game terrorist organization for the mobile game “Elite Squad”.
In the internal email sent to staff, it was said that Charlie Guillemot takes “full responsibility” for the oversight.
Ubisoft’s new Transformative Committee members consists of:
- Alain Corre
- Cécile Russeil
- Charlie Guillemot
- Christophe Derennes
- Jean Guesdon
- Marie-Sophie de Waubert
- Michaël Montaner
- Nicolas Rioux
- Sébastien Froidefond
- Stéphanie Perotti
Earlier this year, Ubisoft announced a new subsidiary with Tencent at a 4.3 billion euro valuation. The deal will see some of Ubisoft’s biggest IPs, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six go from Ubisoft to the new subsidiary. In addition, studios including Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia will move over.
So far, Ubisoft employee’s have been left fairly in the dark about what the new subsidiary actually means, with Yves Guillemot himself saying in an internal memo that there’s not really a plan for the future as “we need to take the time to figure this out”.
Ubisoft was contacted before publication, but has not yet commented. Should one be received, this article will be updated.
UPDATE – Ubisoft has issued the following statement:
“With the recent announcement to create a new subsidiary, Ubisoft is undertaking a transformation of its entire organization. Charlie Guillemot has rejoined Ubisoft and is on the internal Transformation Committee that will recommend to the Executive Committee a new operating model designed to ensure Ubisoft’s long-term success.”
If you’re a current or former Ubisoft employee and would like to speak to me about the recent changes at Ubisoft, you can contact me at [email protected] or [email protected] anonymously.
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Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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