What to learn from HQ Trivia's demise

• HQ announced Friday it was shutting down, laying off its remaining 25 employees.

Flashback: HQ Trivia was once the talk of mobile games, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to its nightly contests, luring celebrity hosts and sponsors and raising $15 million in a funding round that valued the company at $100 million.

Yes, but: The premise of a live game show with cash prizes was initially alluring. But people found victory brought only small-change rewards, and the novelty playing live wore off before the company could come up with another big hit.

• The company suffered another blow when CEO (and co-founder of both HQ and Vine) Colin Kroll died in December 2018, at age 35, of an apparent drug overdose.

Our thought bubble: It's hard to turn a hit into a franchise, and harder still to turn a franchise into a sustainable company.

Go deeper: Digital game spending hit a record $109 billion in 2019