One of social gaming’s biggest developers is scaling back its operations around the world.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":594485,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"C"}']Zynga will close its Japanese offices by the end of January. Kenji Matsubara, the chief executive officer of Zynga Japan, made the announcement on his Facebook page, according to TechCrunch.
Zynga then updated its Japanese website to reflect the coming closure with this statement (via Google Translate and Twitter user Cheesemeister3k):
Notice of dissolution of a Japanese corporation
Thank you for patronizing Zynga Japan.
Zynga Japan will dissolve effective January 31, 2013, for various reasons, but operations will continue through that date.
We would like to thank everyone the customers who enjoy our past titles. We’ve seen your support.
In 2010, Zynga acquired Tokyo-based Unoh Games. This was an attempt to establish a presence in a market that’s been very receptive to social and mobile games, as evidenced by competitor Gree’s success in that nation.
But Zynga couldn’t compete. In October, Zynga chief executive officer Mark Pincus wrote a letter to employees noting that the company would cut 5 percent of its workforce. In that letter, Pincus told his staff that the company was evaluating closing Zynga Japan. This is the result of that evaluation.
Zynga is still one of the strongest names in the Facebook-game market, but a common criticism of the company is its over-reliance on the popular social network. The developer diversified into its own Zynga.com and mobile games, but the transition is not producing financial results on par with the early successes like FarmVille and CityVille.