Death penalty for corporate conflict how Yoozoo Games executive poisoned company founder over Netflix series

Background of the Shanghai tragedy corporate rivalry and sci-fi adaptation

A high-profile judicial process in the Chinese entertainment and technology industry has concluded in Shanghai. Official sources confirmed the execution of Xu Yao, a former executive of a division at Yoozoo Games. He was found guilty of the intentional murder of the company founder and CEO Lin Qi in December 2020. The cause of the brutal crime was deep corporate disagreements and a struggle for control over the adaptation rights of Liu Cixin’s world-famous sci-fi trilogy titled The Three-Body Problem.

Yoozoo Games, known internationally for its browser game Game of Thrones Winter Is Coming, acquired the film adaptation rights to Liu Cixin’s trilogy in 2014. Lin Qi, who founded the company in 2009 and possessed a significant fortune, planned to create a global media franchise comparable in scale to Star Wars. To realize this ambitious plan, Xu Yao, an experienced lawyer, was invited to the company in 2017 to head the Three Body Universe subsidiary, responsible for managing the novel’s intellectual property. However, work on the project was accompanied by constant conflicts between the top manager and the business owner over inefficient management and content production delays.

Chronology of the poisoning how Xu Yao planned the murder of the billionaire

The conflict between the executives escalated when Lin Qi decided to significantly reduce Xu Yao’s salary and remove him from direct management of key processes, leaving him with only formal legal functions. Dissatisfied with this decision, Xu Yao developed a detailed plan for revenge. According to investigators, he set up an underground laboratory in a Shanghai suburb where he experimented with various types of toxic substances, purchasing them online via the dark web. He tested poisonous mixtures on pets, trying to find a dosage that would not arouse immediate suspicion among doctors.

Between September and December 2020, Xu Yao began slipping toxic compounds, including methylmercury chloride, tetrodotoxin (pufferfish poison), and arsenic, into food, water, and probiotic capsules regularly consumed by Lin Qi. On December 16, 2020, the founder of Yoozoo Games felt acutely ill after returning from the office and was urgently hospitalized at a leading clinic in Shanghai. Despite the efforts of medics and several blood transfusion procedures, the 39-year-old entrepreneur could not be saved. Lin Qi died on December 25, 2020, on Christmas Day. The autopsy and toxicological examination revealed a lethal concentration of several dangerous poisons in his body.

Financial metrics and asset structure of Yoozoo Games

The corporate conflict had a serious financial basis, as the market value of the media franchise rights was estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Below are the main financial indicators and consequences of this event for Yoozoo Games at the time of the incident.

Other victims of the corporate conflict in the game developer’s office

The investigation revealed that Xu Yao’s actions were not limited to eliminating the CEO. Due to professional disputes and differing views on the development of gaming projects, the top manager tried to poison four other company employees. Among them were development unit heads and financial controllers who replaced Xu Yao in key areas after his actual demotion. They consumed poisoned drinks in the office during the autumn of 2020.

These four employees suffered serious chronic damage to their internal organs and nervous systems, but thanks to timely medical attention and a lower concentration of toxins in their food portions, they survived. The court qualified these actions as attempted murder, which became an additional important circumstance in passing the final severe sentence.

Trial and execution of the death penalty under PRC laws

The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court considered Xu Yao’s case for several years due to the complexity of conducting examinations and the need to collect evidence regarding the creation of chemical substances. In March 2024, the court found the defendant guilty on all charges. The judges noted that the suspect’s motives were despicable, and the method of committing the crime was characterized by particular cruelty and treachery, causing significant public harm and leading to large financial losses for company shareholders.

According to the Criminal Procedure Code of the PRC, death sentences undergo mandatory approval by the Supreme People’s Court of China. After the completion of all appeal procedures and confirmation of the sentence by the highest judicial instance, Xu Yao was executed in Shanghai. Chinese law provides for the execution of such sentences by lethal injection or firing squad, but the exact method in this case is not officially disclosed.

The subsequent fate of The Three-Body Problem franchise on Netflix

Despite the tragic death of project initiator Lin Qi, who is posthumously credited as an executive producer, work on the American adaptation of the novel The Three-Body Problem continued. The streaming platform Netflix, together with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (creators of the Game of Thrones series), released the first season of the show in March 2024. The project received positive audience reviews and high marks from critics, allowing it to be renewed for subsequent seasons.

The Chinese side also released its own screen version of the novel, which debuted in early 2023 and was titled Three-Body by the Tencent Video platform. This series is a more faithful adaptation of Liu Cixin’s original text and is targeted primarily at the domestic market in China. Yoozoo Games currently continues to operate under new management, attempting to rebuild its reputation after the most notorious corporate scandal in the history of the modern video game industry.