"Suspicion of Poisoning by Colleague"… Chinese 1 Trillion Won Game Company 'Youzu' Chairman Dies Suddenly

Chairman Lin Chi of Chinese game company 'Youzu'
[Youzu homepage capture. Resale and DB prohibited] [Image source = Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] News has emerged of the death of a 39-year-old entrepreneur who gained popularity as a "successful young businessman" in the Chinese gaming industry. In China, there are suspicions that this may have been a "poisoning by a colleague."

According to local media such as Jinrongjie (金融界) on the 27th, the game company Yoozoo (游族·YOOZOO) announced on the 25th without revealing detailed circumstances that "Chairman Lin Qi (林奇), the company's founder and largest shareholder, passed away in the hospital."

In China, rumors circulated that Chairman Lin had been hospitalized and receiving treatment since around the 16th. At that time, the company explained, "Chairman Lin was hospitalized due to health discomfort, but his condition was stable."

However, just before Lin's death on the 24th, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau suspected that Lin had been poisoned and named a male colleague, Mr. Xu Mo, as a suspect.

China Economic Weekly also reported that Xu Xiao, CEO of Yoozoo's film production subsidiary "San Ti Universe" (三體宇宙), harbored resentment due to a work-related dispute and poisoned Chairman Lin by mixing poison into his medicine.

As this shocking news circulated in the media, voices have emerged within China suggesting that the issue of adapting the popular Chinese science fiction (SF) novel "San Ti" into a film might be the background of this incident.

Lin's company Yoozoo had secured the film production rights to the novel "San Ti" by the widely popular author Liu Cixin (柳慈欣) both inside and outside China and had an ambitious plan to produce a six-part film series with an investment of 200 billion won. Xu Xiao, suspected as the perpetrator, is known to have been involved in promoting the film adaptation project related to San Ti.

"San Ti" is also a work that gained attention as former U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly read it during his vacation. Author Liu Cixin became the first Asian to receive a prestigious SF literary award with this work.

Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming Main Image [Image source = Provided by Youzu Games Korea]

While there are concerns that the much-anticipated film adaptation of "San Ti" has become uncertain due to this incident, Chinese society is shocked by the possibility that a successful young entrepreneur was poisoned.

Born in 1981, Chairman Lin Qi founded the game company Yoozoo in 2009 and quickly rose as a leading young entrepreneur in the Chinese gaming industry.

Yoozoo is also known as a rare Chinese company that actively pursues overseas business. It produced the game "Game of Thrones Winter is Coming," based on the popular American drama "Game of Thrones," and, together with Tencent, serves as the Chinese distributor for Supercell's popular game Brawl Stars.

According to the Chinese wealth report "Hurun," Lin's fortune was estimated at about 1 billion dollars (approximately 1.1 trillion won). He also held a 24% stake in Yoozoo.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.