Ubisoft CEO Takes $327K Personal Pay Cut Due To Company’s Poor Annual Performance

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has made a personal decision to take a pay cut on account of the studio’s poor performance this past year. The cut amounts to €310,607 (roughly $327,000 USD) and will be taken out of his annual variable compensation that’s awarded to him based on company performance.

Ubisoft’s 2021-2022 Annual Financial Report shows a 5% drop in total sales, a 14% drop in operation profit, and a massive 50% drop in its stock price over the past year. A spokesperson for the company admitted that, “[Ubisoft] had not reached the financial targets that it had publicly communicated to the markets.”

Guillemot attributes the past year’s poor performance to increased competition in the gaming industry and the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the delay of multiple premium titles.

“If we look back at the past two years, they have arguably been quite intense for the world, for our industry and for Ubisoft,” said Guillemot. “We have seen a meaningful increase in competition, with growing player expectations and an abundance of high-quality content. Simultaneously, the Covid crisis has led to major production challenges across the industry that have caused more than 30 premium titles being delayed in calendar year 2021 alone.”

“While clear productivity improvements are being made, every month continues to see major content postponed. These production challenges have been exacerbated over the past 12 months by The Great Reshuffle trend that has been impacting all industries across the world,” he added.

In spite of this, Guillemot touts that they’ve successfully delivered a huge lineup of quality content and have transformed the company to better take advantage of the new opportunities presented as the gaming industry continues to evolves at an ever-faster rate.

He also lauded the company’s “best-in-class” governance and increased opportunities for female employees in both developmental and leadership roles.

“We have ambitious plans to continue building a more diverse and inclusive organization. And while attrition has been a challenge over the past 12 months, the actions we have implemented on talent retention are starting to pay-off,” he said.

The full 2021-2022 Annual Financial Report can be found here if you’re up for some heavy reading.