A former executive at Yoozoo Games was handed a capital punishment verdict last Friday for a 2020 poisoning incident involving the company’s founder. The Chinese gaming company is known for its association with “Game of Thrones” and the recently launched Netflix series, “The Three-Body Problem.”
The court also revealed that Mr. Yao’s actions went beyond the poisoning of Mr. Qi. Between September and December 2020, four other individuals reportedly became ill as well after Mr. Yao reportedly poisoned food or supplements in the office. The incidents stemmed from separate disputes Mr. Yao had with two of the victims, the court said.
Yoozoo Games is known for developing the game “Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming.” The company holds the film adaptation rights to the popular Chinese science fiction trilogy “The Three-Body Problem.” Mr. Yao reportedly headed a subsidiary within Yoozoo that managed business ventures related to the intellectual property. In September 2020, Yoozoo granted Netflix the authorization to produce a series based on the trilogy.
‘Goodbye Youth’
Yoozoo communicated the news of Lin Qi’s death in a statement from his family, after the Shanghai police issued a statement disclosing his hospitalization due to suspected poisoning in December 2020.In a message shared on its official microblog, the company bid farewell to Mr. Qi in words that resonated with fans of the sci-fi series: “Goodbye youth,” the statement said, adding, “We will be together, continue to be kind, continue to believe in goodness, and continue the fight against all that is bad.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed the arrest of Mr. Qi’s colleague, a 39-year-old male, at the time identified only by the surname Xu, on suspicion of involvement in the poisoning incident.
Mr. Yao was reportedly a huge fan of the TV series “Breaking Bad,” according to Chinese media Caixin Global. He has a legal background, having graduated from France’s Paul Cézanne University with a degree in insurance law in 2006, followed by studies at the University of Michigan law school. Prior to joining Yoozoo in 2017, he worked at the Fosun Group, a well known financial conglomerate.
Transitioning from the company’s board in 2019, Mr. Yao assumed a role within its film division. It was within this domain that he took charge of the ambitious “The Three-Body Problem” undertaking, inspired by Liu Cixin’s popular sci-fi series, which gained a following abroad following its translation into English.
More on Yoozoo
Yoozoo is widely recognized for its development of “Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming,” a strategy game based on the acclaimed HBO series. Pioneering the exploration of overseas markets among Chinese game publishers, Yoozoo derived 63 percent of its revenue from international sources in 2019.After it went public in 2007, however, Yoozoo navigated a competitive gaming landscape, experiencing dwindling profit margins and diminished profits. The company, like many of its peers, faced substantial challenges in 2018 when China’s gaming regulatory authority halted new game approvals for the majority of the year, only lifting restrictions toward year’s end.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an upswing in home gaming that was reflected in Yoozoo’s 41 percent revenue surge in the first three quarters off 2020. Subsequently, however, its profit margin declined.
Mr. Qi had progressively divested his holdings in the company in recent years. At the time of his death in 2020, he had reduced his stake to approximately 24 percent, down from about 35 percent in 2019. Yoozoo attributed the sales to an effort to alleviate the company’s debt burden. Nonetheless, the exit of four of its directors, including Mr. Yao, hinted at internal problems.
The company’s Shenzhen-listed shares went into a tailspin on news of his hospitalization and death in 2020, losing 40 percent of their market value year on year. Yoozoo’s share price has declined 57 percent over the last five years. Its share price declined more than 6 percent after the company made headlines last week in connection with Mr. Yao’s sentencing.
