Poison By Colleague Suspected In Death Of Yoozoo Games Founder

The founder of Yoozoo Games, Lin Qi, passed away on Christmas Day after eight days in hospital suffering "acute symptoms of illness." Now the Shanghai police have revealed that poison may have played a part in Lin's death, and this may have involved a colleague, the Guardian reports.

Yoozoo Games is a Shanghai studio best known for Game of Thrones strategy game Winter is Coming. Yoozoo is also set to produce the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the Three-Body Problem, which has Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attached.

According to reports from the Shanghai police, the hospital determined that Lin had been poisoned. The police have detained a suspect with the surname Xu, who allegedly worked with Lin at Yoozoo Games. The police statement only said that Xu was a suspect, who was being detained "in accordance with the law while the relevant investigative work is carried out."

Lin was thought to have had a net worth of around 6.8 billion yuan, the equivalent of around $1 billion, after founding Yoozoo Games in 2009. Yoozoo also publishes the browser-based MMORPG series League of Angels, which operates on a heavily monetized free-to-play model.

Yoozoo has posted a tribute to Lin Qi, signed by staff at the company. "Together, we will continue to be kind, continue to believe in beauty, and continue to fight against all that is unkind," a translated version of the statement reads.