Zynga has confirmed that they will be laying off five percent of their total workforce. The social game company says this is part of a cost reduction plan that also includes significant cuts in spending on data hosting, advertising and outside services such as contractors.
“We are sunsetting 13 older games and we’re also significantly reducing our investment in The Ville,” said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in a note to employees. “We are closing the Zynga Boston studio and proposing closures of the Zynga Japan and U.K. studios. Additionally, we are reducing staffing levels in our Austin studio. All of these represent terrific entrepreneurial teams, which make this decision so difficult. In addition to these studios, we are also making a small number of partner team reductions.”
“We will all be discussing these difficult changes more with our teams and as a company,” he added. “Tomorrow, Dave and I will be hosting a post-earnings webcast (details to follow) and next week we will be discussing our broader vision and strategy during our quarterly all-hands meeting. I’m confident this puts us on the right path to deliver on the promise of social gaming and make Zynga into an internet treasure.”
