Ex-Gaming Exec With Company That Owns ‘3-Body Problem’ Film Rights Sentenced To Death In China

A former executive at Yoozoo Games was sentenced to death on Friday in the 2020 poisoning of the company founder. The Chinese gaming company has links to Game of Thrones and the new Netflix series, The 3-Body Problem.

Xu Yao poisoned the food of 39-year-old company founder Lin Qi in December 2020, allegedly because of a dispute over the business operations, the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court said.

Lin was allegedly sickened by a cup of poisoned pu-erh tea. Lin died about 10 days later. Police detained Xu a few days after Lin’s death.

Four other people were sickened but did not die after Xu poisoned beverages in the office between September and December 2020. He allegedly did so because of disputes with two of them, the court said in a statement.

Yoozoo owns the film rights to The 3-Body Problem, a best-selling Chinese science fiction trilogy, and Xu headed up a subsidiary in charge of business related to it, according to Chinese media reports.

In September 2020, the company gave Netflix the right to produce an adaptation of the trilogy. It is produced by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and Lin was listed as an executive producer on the series.

Yoozoo, also known as Youzu Interactive, developed Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming, a game based on the TV series.