The board of directors of the company Yoozoo released a statement on December 26 confirming the death of founder and chairman Lin Qi.
“The company’s directors, supervisors, senior management and all employees express their deepest condolences on the death of Mr. Lin Qi,” the statement said.
A colleague of Lin – a 39-year-old man with the surname Xu – has been detained in Shanghai, and authorities said in a statement that they were first warned on December 17 of suspected poisoning.
Police said Xu was “suspected of committing a major crime.”
Two days before his death, Yoozoo released a statement saying that Lin had been hospitalized for “physical discomfort,” but was stable and improving.
Lin, whose company was one of the largest mobile game publishers in China in terms of global revenue, is said to be worth about $ 1 billion ($ 6.8 billion yuan) according to Hurun Report’s global rich list.
Founded in 2009, Yoozoo is known for its 2019 role-playing title “Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming.” After turning his attention to film production in 2014, Lin bought the rights to the Chinese science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, with the Yoozoo Group negotiating a deal with Netflix to turn the book into a television series produced by David Benioff and DB. Weiss of “Game of Thrones” fame.