Zynga Closes ‘PetVille’ and Several Other Games

Zynga is shutting down its well-known “PetVille” and “Mafia Wars 2″ games, as well as many others, as part of cost-cutting measures the company put in place earlier this year.

 

The games, which included titles like “FishVille” and “Mafia Wars 2,” weren’t of the scale of games like “FarmVille 2″ which boast millions of players checking the game every day. Zynga’s first “FarmVille era” has more or less come to a close, with the stock falling well off its $10 IPO price to roughly $2.40 today.

 

Games on the scale of “FarmVille 2″ are still rare for Zynga, and even then, they don’t compare to its initial success on Facebook with games like the original FarmVille and CityVille. The original “FarmVille,” at its peak, had more than ten million players logging in every day, according to AppData. “CityVille” broke the 10-million daily player mark, and “CastleVille” had 8.4 million daily players at its height, according to AppData.

 

As players are being reminded today, these online games only exist on Zynga’s infrastructure — and the price of playing such a game is that they can disappear. Instead of  classic games on consoles, or even some native apps, the data is no longer accessible when Zynga pulls the plug. In the case of “PetVille,” that led to a few sad goodbyes based on the comment thread.

 

The list of games being shut down is mostly games that are run on Facebook — which isn’t surprising given that Zynga, like many other companies, is seeing its player base migrate increasingly to mobile devices. Much of its success currently lies with its mobile games, like “Texas Hold ‘Em Poker” and “Words With Friends.”

 

Looking at the numbers of players below, it is clear why Zynga would shut the games down — they aren’t on the scale of Zynga’s most popular games.  Shutting them down allows Zynga to re-allocate resources and reduce costs.

 

Instead of having some kind of memento of their accomplishments or keeping the games live, Zynga is offering to move players to another game with a package of virtual goods in the case of some of the games being shut down.

 

Zynga did not immediately return requests for comment.

 

Here are some of games that are being shut down, and their Facebook-connected number of users if available:

 

Mafia Wars 2, on December 30 (200,000 monthly active users)

 

PetVille, on December 30 (1,000,000 monthly active users)

 

ForestVille, on December 30 (8,000 monthly active users)

 

Mafia Wars Shakedown, December 30 (1,000 monthly active users)

 

Montopia, on December 21 (10,000 players)

 

FishVille, on December 5 (400,000 monthly active users)

 

Vampire Wars, on December 5 (120,000 monthly active users)

 

Treasure Isle, on December 5 (250,000 monthly active users)

 

Indiana Jones Adventure World, on January 14, 2013 (580,000 players)

 

(WSJ)