Millennial gaming billionaire of Yoozoo dies at 39 as police probe poisoning case
- Lin, 39, fell ill on December 16, and died on Christmas Day, his company Yoozoo said
- Employees and former staff gathered at the Shanghai office of Youzu Interactive, as the games publisher is also called, to mourn Lin’s passing, according to local media reports
Lin Qi, the chairman and chief executive of games publisher Yoozoo, died in a Shanghai hospital on Christmas Day in what the police characterised as suspected poisoning, the company confirmed.
The 39-year-old billionaire first fell ill on December 16. On Wednesday, Yoozoo, also known as Youzu Interactive, said that the founder’s condition was “stable”. On Friday, the company announced that Lin had died, without giving a specific cause.
According to the National Business Daily newspaper, many employees and ex-employees gathered outside the Yoozoo’s office to mourn Lin’s death.
“Qi was the heart and soul of Yoozoo. He was the alpha of the company,” the newspaper reported, quoting an unidentified ex-Yoozoo-employee.
As one of the young stars in China’s hugely lucrative gaming sector, Lin had a net worth estimated at 6.8 billion yuan (US$1 billion), according to the Hurun China Rich List. Founded in 2009, Yoozoo is best known outside China as the developer of Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming, a strategy game for smartphones and personal computers based on the HBO hit series. It is also the co-publisher of Supercell’s smash-hit game Brawl Stars with Tencent Holdings in China.