Game of Thrones video game tycoon Lin Qi dies at 39, Shanghai police probe poisoning case

Shanghai police on December 28 said that the 39-year-old Chinese video game tycoon, who died on Christmas Day, was poisoned. Lin Qi, who was the chairman and CEO of games developer Yoozoo, was taken to the hospital with “acute symptoms of illness”. According to BBC, the Shanghai police pointed to one of Lin’s colleagues as the main suspect.  

On Monday, the Shanghai police informed that the hospital had determined that Lin had been poisoned. They said that they had detained a colleague of Lin’s, identified by his surname Xu. Further, the police statement also said that Xu was a suspect and had been detained “in accordance with the law which the relevant investigative work is carried out”. 

Lin’s company, Yoozoo Games, is best known for the 'Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming' strategy games and as the producer of the forthcoming Netflix adaption of the science-fiction hit The Three-Body Problem. The video game tycoon was believed to have a net worth of around 6.8bn yuan (£770m). Several employees and ex-employees had even gathered outside Yoozoo’s office on Friday to mourn his death. 

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Yoozoo pays tribute to Lin 

According to reports, Lin was a star of China’s lucrative gaming market and had also made a foray into film production. He founded Yoozoo in 2009 and successfully led the company through a period where the gaming industry saw substantial changes towards mobile gaming. The Caixin media outlet reported that the arrested suspect, Xu, could be a former Yoozoo director involved with the motion picture subsidiary that is working on The Three-Body Problem. It also reported that there are speculations that Lin had been poisoned via an aged pure tea, a fermented Chinese drink. 

Meanwhile, following Lin’s demise, the company issued an emotional statement on its official Weibo website. The firm wrote, “Goodbye youth. We will be together, continue to be kind, continue to believe in goodness and continue to fight against all that is bad”. Yoozoo also posted a tribute to Lin, signed by the staff. It read, “You saw through what was imperfect but still believed in beauty; encountered unkindness but still believed in kindness”. 

(Image: @techjunkiejh/Twitter)

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