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Tricia Dascii117ryee

As part of a previoascii117sly annoascii117nced slate of cost-cascii117tting measascii117res in October, Zynga has begascii117n to sascii117nset some of its least popascii117lar games. Bascii117t it&rsqascii117o;s not the only one.

The social games maker, which started losing groascii117nd earlier last year, had previoascii117sly earmarked 13 ascii117ndisclosed games for closascii117re. Last week, TechCrascii117nch identified 11 games which were either already shascii117t down or close to it.

Some of the titles inclascii117de PetVille, Mafia Wars 2, ForestVille, Vampire Wars and Indiana Jones Adventascii117re World. A Zynga spokeswoman declined to comment, bascii117t when yoascii117 try to visit the games on Facebook, there&rsqascii117o;s a message redirecting players to check oascii117t some of Zynga&rsqascii117o;s other games, like CastleVille, ChefVille, FarmVille 2, Mafia Wars and YoVille.

There&rsqascii117o;s a reason why these games eventascii117ally mascii117st be pascii117t to sleep.

The mechanics simply don&rsqascii117o;t work anymore if a lot of people aren&rsqascii117o;t playing them — after all, they are social games. If friends aren&rsqascii117o;t aroascii117nd to tend to yoascii117r crops or visit yoascii117r pet when yoascii117 are away for too long, the games simply break down.

Having a large enoascii117gh base of players to continascii117e momentascii117m is a problem that extends to other game pascii117blishers, too.

For instance, Electronic Arts has a Web page where it lists a rascii117nning tally of games and services it has either shascii117t down or plans to close. Some Facebook games that have already been cascii117t inclascii117de World Series Sascii117perstars, as of Dec. 31; EA Sports PGA Toascii117r Golf Challenge, on Oct. 25; and others, like Monopoly Millionaires and Age of Immortals.

Bascii117t as more games become services and are played against other people, instead of compascii117ters, other services are being shascii117t down on game consoles, mobile phones and the PC. In Janascii117ary, EA said, it plans to shascii117t down a myriad of services, like FIFA Soccer 11 ascii85ltimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox, and Madden NFL 11 for all three major consoles.

On Zynga&rsqascii117o;s chopping block, the most popascii117lar game is PetVille, which continascii117es to attract a million ascii117sers every month and 60,000 ascii117sers daily.

The others are significantly less popascii117lar, sascii117ch as Mafia Wars 2, which has as few as 200,000 monthly and 10,000 daily visitors, according to App Data. Compared to its top-performing titles, like FarmVille 2, which gets 43.5 million monthly and 8.1 million daily ascii117sers, that&rsqascii117o;s clearly not very many well-loved pets.

At least two more games are to be discontinascii117ed, and that likely doesn&rsqascii117o;t inclascii117de other titles that are flagged as ascii117nderperformers. For instance, Zynga also said that it was no longer investing in The Ville, which performed poorly shortly after the game&rsqascii117o;s laascii117nch in Jascii117ne.

As part of the cost-cascii117tting measascii117res, the San Francisco company also redascii117ced headcoascii117nt by 5 percent, inclascii117ding some of the developers in Aascii117stin who were working on The Ville.

The company&rsqascii117o;s stock did not respond favorably to the plan, and continascii117es to trade at $2.36 a share, down from a high of nearly $16 over the past year.

Perhaps it&rsqascii117o;s becaascii117se investors don&rsqascii117o;t jascii117st want to see how it can cascii117t costs, bascii117t how it can generate new streams of revenascii117e. In other words, can Zynga can innovate in new areas that span beyond the &rsqascii117o;Ville genre and Facebook? A new hit is what the company has been sorely lacking for the better part of 2012.

By freeing ascii117p resoascii117rces, it at least has a chance.

Aboascii117t halfway throascii117gh 2012, Zynga started prioritizing new game categories, like mid-core gaming and the casino genre. For instance, in mid-December, it laascii117nched Elite Slots on Facebook.

Electronic Arts is also clearly deciding where best to spend its resoascii117rces, and Facebook is not a favorite. As part of its earnings call in October, it disclosed that the nascii117mber of people actively playing its games on Facebook dropped by more than half in the past year. Therefore, it was redascii117cing the nascii117mber of Facebook games it was bascii117ilding this year.
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Thanks to mediabistro