Zynga Closes Mafia Wars On MySpace

Zynga has closed the MySpace version of its Mafia Wars social game. Players of the MySpace version are being directed to Zynga’s MafiaWars.com if they wish to continue playing the game. At the time of its closure, Mafia Wars was the second most popular social game on the MySpace network with over 13 million registered users. Zynga still operates Zynga Poker on MySpace, but has already closed other games like YoVille and Fashion Wars. Zynga’s biggest games, CityVille and FarmVille, were never available on MySpace.

Zynga’s move was likely driven by MySpace’s continually dwindling traffic numbers. MySpace’s total active userbase went from 93 million to 63 million in the course of the last year. The social network lost over 10 million users between January and February 2011 alone. MySpace stated last year that it intended to reposition around social gaming, but this move has never materialized. Instead, MySpace owner News Corp publicly announced its plans to sell or spinout MySpace earlier this year.

On Facebook, Mafia Wars serves over 14 million monthly active users and is the twelfth-largest app on the network. Zynga is not the only developer closing MySpace games in light of the network’s declining traffic. Competitors Playdom and RockYou shut down both games and game-like apps on MySpace in the beginning months of 2011. Zynga tends to shut games down quietly, which lead to a player outcry when Zynga shut down its older Street Racing game on all networks.

[via Worlds in Motion]

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