Plain Vanilla, the Icelandic start-up behind QuizUp, fired all 36 members of its staff this morning, and will close its doors in Iceland.
Kjarninn reports that while the company was hoping that the American television network NBC would make a game show out of QuizUp, ultimately the broadcast giant declined to move forward with further production.
Plain Vanilla will continue to maintain QuizUp for the next three months. In the meantime, the company says they are exploring avenues for the game to be able to continue without them. According to sources close to Kjarninn, the company is looking for a buyer for the game.
Plain Vanilla was at one time a hot commodity. It received numerous accolades, and sought to expand rapidly, even reaching as far afield as China.
The news that NBC dropped the project came as a surprise to Plain Vanilla, as NBC had ordered 13 episodes and had begun production.
“I am grateful for having been able to work with unbelievably talented people on this journey,” Plain Vanilla founder and director Þorsteinn Baldur Friðriksson said in a statement to the press. “I am excited to see what Plain Vanilla’s workers will take on in the future, and am completely convinced that more new companies will be created from this group, who have gained great experience in recent years.”
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