Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot will be voluntarily taking a €310,607 (roughly £266,430) pay cut due to the company failing to meet financial targets, as well as the execution of internal reforms stemming from sexual misconduct accusations within the company in 2020.
The report comes via Axios, with a Ubisoft rep assuring the publication that it is a “personal decision by Yves Guillemot, which he took considering that the company had not reached the financial targets that it had publicly communicated to the markets”. It’s also noted by Axios that this information was hidden within the fine print of Ubisoft’s 352-word annual report published earlier this month.
This has dropped Guillemot’s compensation by roughly a third for the next year to €624,824 (approximately £536,136), with that figure not accounting for additional stock awards as they won’t be available until after 2023. Within the past year Ubisoft’s operating profit has dropped by 14 per cent, its sales dropped by five per cent and its stock lost half its value.
In recent years, Ubisoft has suffered controversy and disappointing receptions to titles such as 2019’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint bombing has left the company in a precarious situation, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla being its only notable huge recent success story. There is also the case of games such as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, Skull & Bones, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 struggling to get out the door.
Ubisoft still has some potential big hitters scheduled for 2022, however, with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Rocksmith+ all still set to release this year at the time of publication.
In other news, microtransactions are coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. 343 Industries has assured that these will be an “additive alternative”, and is happy with the current system in place.
