Lin Qi, the founder and chairman of game developer and publisher Yoozoo, died on Christmas Day after a suspected poisoning, according to Shanghai police statements.
A man with the surname Xu, who worked with Lin, has been detained and has publicly been listed as a suspect. Police said in a statement they are aware of a suspected poisoning on Dec. 17 and that Lin was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 23.
Although an initial report of the hospitalization said he was in stable condition, Yoozoo’s stock dropped 18 percent, and Lin’s health deteriorated quickly as well.
Lin, 39, was thought to be worth more than $1 billion after having success in China’s gaming and film markets. Lin and Yoozoo released real-time strategy game Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming in 2019 and previously developed games such as League of Angels. Yoozoo also partnered with Tencent to publish Brawl Stars in China earlier this year.
Yoozoo struck a deal with Netflix in September for the platform to adapt Three-Body Problem, a Chinese sci-fi novel to which Yoozoo had the film rights.
In a statement on its Weibo page, Yoozoo said, “We will be together, continue to be kind, continue to believe in goodness, and continue to fight against all that is bad.”
