During this afternoon’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Zynga announced three more game shutdowns — CityVille 2, Party Friends, and The Friend Game.
The most notable closure was probably CityVille 2, since it was the sequel to what was once Zynga’s biggest hit. However, the game’s traffic has plummeted. COO David Ko blamed some of CityVille 2’s failure on a lack of lead time to properly test the game.
Zynga had earlier announced a cost-savings plan that saw the shutdown of 11 titles. This year, the company will be releasing fewer games and spacing their releases further apart, Ko said. He also said that many of those new games have significant franchise potential.
Not all of the news was bad. Zynga’s earnings actually beat fourth-quarter analyst estimates, and during the call it touted a big milestone for FarmVille as well as the successful launch of its sequel.