Troubled game developer Zynga will reportedly shut down three games released towards the end of 2012. Included in the latest batch of cancellations is CityVille 2 .
The announcement was made during a recent fourth-quarter earnings call. According to Kotaku , CityVille 2 , Party Friends , and The Friend Game will soon cease to exist. All three of these titles are less than four months old.
CityVille 2 dropped last November, while Party Friends and The Friend Game were released in December. Since all three games failed to draw in a significant number of players, the company has decided to shut them down.
TechCrunch reports that Zynga chief operations officer David Ko believes the developers’ inability to properly test the game is the reason for the game’s failure.
Since the company is still struggling to put itself back together after a particularly hard year, Ko said the Zynga intends to release fewer games over the next 12 months. The company will also begin putting the focus on titles it feels will become franchises.
According to VentureBeat , the company did have some good news to share. While CityVille 2 didn’t capture the attention of social gamers, one of its recent titles has exceeded expectations. FarmVille 2 is considered to be one of the more successful games Zynga has released in years.
Ko said the company had taken recent steps to get itself back in shape. Instead of putting most of the focus on Facebook games, developers are now working on a handful of mobile games. Unfortunately for chief game designer Brian Reynolds, the failure of CityVille 2 ended with his resignation.
The Inquisitr previously reported that Zynga discontinued a number of its games towards the end of 2012. Among the casualties were Mafia Wars 2 , PetVille , FishVille , and Vampire Wars .
Are you a fan of Zynga’s games? Are you disappointed that CityVille 2 , Party Friends , and The Friend Game will be shut down?