What’s new: Lin Qi, the chairman and chief executive of Chinese game publisher Yoozoo Interactive Col Ltd., died Friday after he was hospitalized in a suspected poisoning.
Police said they had arrested Lin’s colleague, a 39-year-old male with the last name of Xu, who is suspected of poisoning Lin.
The arrestee could be Xu Yao, who was formerly a director of Yoozoo and now works at Yoozoo’s motion picture subsidiary, leading a project based on acclaimed Chinese science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, several sources in the gaming industry told Caixin.
Police are investigating the case and details of what happened are still not known.
The background: Yoozoo is best known as developer of Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming, a strategy game based on the HBO hit series. As one of the first Chinese game publishers to explore the overseas market, Yoozoo generated 63% of its revenue from overseas in 2019.
Yoozoo has been facing increasingly fierce competition in the gaming market and has seen declining profit margins and lower profits.
As the gaming industry in general has benefited from home gaming during the Covid-19 pandemic, Yoozoo’s revenue increased 41% in the first three quarters of 2020, but its profit declined 21% over the same period last year. Its gross profit margin narrowed from 70% in 2014 to 31% in 2019, lagging behind the industry, according to the company’s financial reports.
Yoozoo holds the movie rights to The Three-Body Problem. The company announced in 2014 plans to spend 200 million yuan ($31 million) to make the movies. The company has increased its spending, but the movies have been delayed repeatedly.
Hit by the news of its CEO’s hospitalization, Yoozoo’s Shenzhen-listed shares have plunged. Its market value has shrunk 40% in the past year.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com)
Related: Attempted Murder Allegation Catapults Chinese Gaming Firm Yoozoo Into Spotlight
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