Plain Vanilla Games
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Plain Vanilla Games was a Reykjavik, Iceland game studio founded in 2010 by Thor Fridriksson. Its breakout hit was QuizUp, a social trivia game launched in November 2013 that became the fastest-growing iOS game ever at the time — 80 million registered users played over 5 billion games. The studio was backed by Sequoia Capital, Tencent and Greycroft and raised more than $40 million, and signed a deal with NBC for a 13-episode QuizUp television show.
02 / Plain Vanilla Games FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Plain Vanilla never cracked monetization: despite tens of millions of users, revenue could not cover the cost of serving them. Its first title, The Moogies, had flopped and left the company in debt; the hoped-for lifeline — an NBC television version of QuizUp — was cancelled before airing; and maintaining infrastructure for an 80-million-user base proved too expensive. In August 2016 the studio closed its Iceland headquarters and laid off all 36 employees.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Thor Fridriksson founds Plain Vanilla Games in Reykjavik, Iceland; raises $1.2M seed with Unity CEO David Helgason's backing.
- QuizUp explodes
QuizUp launches November 2013 and becomes the fastest-growing iPhone game ever; investors Sequoia, Tencent and Greycroft back the studio (over $40M raised in total).
- Studio closes
On August 31, 2016, Plain Vanilla closes its Iceland HQ and fires all 36 staff after the NBC TV deal is cancelled.
- Acquired by Glu Mobile
On December 19, 2016, Glu Mobile acquires Plain Vanilla and QuizUp in a deal valued at $7.5M, including $7.5M of forgiven convertible debt.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / AFTERMATH
Aftermath
QuizUp lived on under Glu Mobile in maintenance mode for nearly five years before being discontinued in March 2021. Glu itself was acquired by Electronic Arts shortly after. Founder Thor Fridriksson went on to new ventures; the QuizUp story became a textbook case of a viral hit that failed to monetize.