A Chinese tycoon behind a Game of Thrones spin-off who died on Christmas Day was poisoned, Shanghai police have said.
Lin Qi, 39, was the chairman and chief executive of games developer, Yoozoo, which is best known for the Games of Thrones: Winter Is Coming strategy game.
In a statement Shanghai police referred to one of Mr Lin’s colleagues, who was only identified by his surname, Xu, as the main suspect.
Although details surrounding Mr Lin’s death are scarce, Yoozoo released a statement saying he had admitted himself to hospital after feeling unwell on 16 December but at the time he was in a stable condition.
Speculation
However, his condition worsened and on Friday the company announced Mr Lin had died.
There was some speculation in local media that he had drunk aged pu’er tea, a fermented Chinese drink, laced with poison.
Reports have also said the person in custody for the alleged murder of Mr Lin could be Xu Yao who heads up Yoozoo’s film production.
Mr Lin founded Yoozoo in 2009 and was believed to have a net worth of around £960m, according to the Hurun China Rich List.
Star
He was a star of China’s gaming industry. Mr Lin had also made a move into film production.
Following his death employees and ex-employees gathered outside Yoozoo’s office on Friday to pay their respects.
The company issued a statement on its official Weibo microblog.
“Goodbye youth,” it said. “We will be together, continue to be kind, continue to believe in goodness, and continue the fight against all that is bad.”
The term “youth” is a reference to the word that is in several of their hit games.
The post has attracted thousands of comments and more the topic has been viewed more than 290 million times on Weibo.
Many of the tributes featured calligraphy reflecting Mr Lin’s love for the decorative script.
Sci-fi novel
As well as its Game of Thrones game, Yoozoo is also the co-publisher of Supercell’s hit mobile phone game Brawl Stars.
The company has also been associated with the Chinese sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem as it holds the rights for its film adaptation.
Yoozoo Pictures had planned to adapt the book into six films but it did not get off the ground.
In September it granted Netflix the right to adapt the novel for television.
The book is the first instalment of the trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by writer Liu Cixi. Fans include former US President Barack Obama.
