Chinese billionaire Lin Qi, 39, died of poisoning on Christmas Day, according to police in Shanghai, China. He was president of the game development company Yoozoo, best known for the strategy game “Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming”.
In the Shanghai police statement, one of Lin’s colleagues, identified only by the name Xu, was named as the prime suspect of the crime. According to the Hurun China Rich List, Lin is believed to have a net worth of approximately 6.8 billion yuan (more than R $ 5.4 billion).
Many employees and former employees gathered in front of Yoozoo’s office on Friday, December 25th, to mourn Lin Qi’s death.
WHO WAS LIN IQ?
The businessman was a star in China’s lucrative game market and had also made a foray into film production. He founded Yoozoo in 2009 and successfully led the company through a time when the gaming industry was changing significantly due to mobile devices.
The company made an emotional statement on its official microblog on the Weibo network (Chinese microblogging service). “Goodbye young man,” he said, adding, “we will be together, we will continue to be kind, we will continue to believe in what is good and we will continue to fight against everything that is bad.”
The post drew thousands of comments and was viewed more than 290 million times. Many of the honors included calligraphy, as Lin was an avid calligrapher as well as a lover of poetry.
LIN QI BECAME TOXIC?
There are few details on the case. The police believe Lin was poisoned. According to a statement from Yoozoo, Lin had been hospitalized after his illness but was in stable condition.
The situation worsened considerably on Friday (December 25th) when the company announced the death of its founder. According to local media reports, the person in custody could be Xu Yao, who runs Yoozo’s film arm.
There was also speculation in the local media that Lin was poisoned with aged puer tea, a fermented Chinese drink.
WHAT IS YOOZOO?
In addition to the game “Game of Thrones”, Yoozoo is also the co-creator of Supercell’s hit game “Brawl Stars” with Chinese Tencent Holdings. The company is also known to own the filming rights to the science fiction novel The Problem of the Three Bodies by Liu Cixin.
However, the expansion into the cinema business was not as successful as expected, and the project to adapt the book to six Yoozoo Pictures films never got off the ground. In September, she granted the US streaming platform Netflix the right to adapt the science fiction novel for television.
The book is the first part of the trilogy The Memory of the Earth’s Past, which is critically acclaimed and shows the former US President Barack Obama and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg among its fans.
BBC News Brazil