Zynga shuts down Boston studio, cuts 5 percent of total workforce

The gaming industry has 5% less suckage because of this.

Zynga games in their current form were just a fad. Now that the fad is on the downswing, they need to more traditional games. Sure they can still sell content in addition to their games, but energy bars and friend spamming needs to go away. 

"POP"

What did Zynga do other than create games that aren't really games but lame excuses to milk people's money!?

I feel bad for anyone that does get unemployed, but Zynga deserves this. Copying other people's work only to release it as your own has always been frowned upon in any field whether it be video games, writing papers, etc. 

In the words of M. Bison:

YES!! YES!!!

I have NO pity for those who were fired. Zynga are criminals and I hate all who support them.

Rquirements for being a Zynga employee:

1. Being a talentless hack.

2. Extremely well versed in the arts of copy-paste.

3. Good with kids. And their wallets.

4. Be even more of a talentless hack.

People losing their jobs is never a good thing.

But Zynga is the giant beast that needs to be slain.  And slowly, I hope collectively the global market does just that.

Unfortunately, there are rainbows and pink unicorn decorations to be bought, and I know one Soccer Mom isn't going to let her neighbor's farm outdo hers. 

Gee, what a surprise.  Zynga has no talent.

Got too big for their own good

I'm surprised that they haven't acknowledged the real problem that their games lack lasting appeal. That's why they're losing money and why they are cutting back.

I hated them for their games!! but casual online players would differ from!! I still don't see their games as games at all!! The only thing that makes me sad is that people lost their jobs!!

Good I want Zynga rot very slowly for popularizing the scam P2W games on FB, and also publicly saying they love to steal ideas from other games without any regrets. On the other hand though I wish those who gets fired may find good jobs and hopefully dont end up in another company like Zynga.

what goes around comes around.  good luck to the employees

Hoping for at least 5% less shitty clones of better games from the world's worst game developer.

They're already creatively bankrupt. It's only a matter of time until their finances meet the same fate.

And nothing of value was lost. 

I'd not be surprised if EA steps in and buys out the (still) lucratice 'Ville-franchise.

Wonderful news. Keep going.

i hope they go bankrupt and close all there studios down.

I HATE Zynga and their stupid games!

They grew WAY too big, too quickly.  These idiot suits keep hotshotting things once they get a bit of success... especially with a market as volatile as the social gaming market. 

If they had kept a team of maybe 50 people, and outsourced localization to have their games in different languages, they'd still be in extremely good shape.  They'd likely have less games, their revenue coming in would be less, but their expenditures would be a lot less too.  Why do they need headquarters in 9 different cities for Facebook games?  They can do phenomenal business with just one or two HQs.

Even though I could careless about Zynga every time I get on GameSpot there's always news about a Studio shutting down

Fuck you Zynga i hope you bankrupt

Americans are losing their jobs in this tough economy? NOOO!!!! Wait, it's Zynga? The guys that just spam my facebook feed all day? Enjoy your stay on the rolls ya jerks!

I remember a few months back, when everyone was saying "SOCIAL GAMING IS THE FUTURE!!!", and major gaming studios were trying to figure out how to cash in on the Farmville crowd. Now we see (surprise!) that it was just a fad, like anything else, and gaming studios need to go back to making actual GAMES.

Am I the only one starting to get tired of the word "streamline" being used for "we fired a lot of people"? If streamlining is so great, why does no company do it when they're on top of the world? They're starting to demean the use of the word streamline by using it in place of firing.

bad news for the pp working

good news for the gamers...zynga is lame i hope the whole company will shut down

My comment is gone, how odd.

Well, It sucks for those that worked for Zynga. I bet Zynga regrets going public.

most of their games have no depth to them...there's no challenge in farmville, or any goal other than unlocking stupid decorations. i like words with friends tho..

too bad..i applied for a job at their texas location.

hate to see anyone get laidoff...been there and it isn't fun. Social gaming in its current form though wont last long. Unless you have a product that's a hit it's impossible to make money on something offered for free.

Sad news for the employees.... I do hope they find work soon.

However, in other HAPPIER news, I'm glad to finally see Zynga getting kicked in the junk like it deserves.  >:D

EA next please.

But where will I get my deeply immersive and rewarding games like Farmville if they cut the workforce!? Oh, that's right, I'll go play anything else ever made...

social games are bad for gaming, heres to hoping they go down

Zynga is an abomination.

"... make Zynga into an internet treasure." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That is good. That is *very* good! Thank you, sir!

Isn't this pretty much the same damn news that was 2 articles down???  What a waste of ground breaking news!!!  Way to go Gamespot way to go.....