For a little while, it looked like Zynga was going to be a massive game publisher, thanks to the success of Facebook-based games like Farmville. Now Zynga is facing the hard truth that playing games on Facebook may have been a passing fad.

On Monday, Zynga announced an 18 percent reduction of its workforce, which AllThingsD.com says will affect over 520 workers. The publisher will also shut down offices located in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. One of those studios may be OMGPOP, which created the hit mobile game Draw Something. Zynga bought OMGPOP in 2012 for a whopping $200 million.

What happened? While Zynga has been moving forward with developing more games on mobile platforms, the drop-off of interest in its many web-based games has taken place faster than Zynga has previously anticipated. The company has already been shutting down a number of games that have seen their player base dwindle down, but now it looks like Zynga feels more drastic measures are needed.

Will these deep layoffs keep the company afloat? That remains to be seen, but it's clear that the Facebook-based game platform has seen better days and Zynga needs to branch out in order to succeed.

Posted: Jun 05, 2013 9:20 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130603/zynga-to-lay-off-520-employees-18-percent-of-staff-and-shutter-new-york-and-la-offices/