Electronic Arts to shutter more Facebook games soon

[Shawn Knight]

Earlier today Electronic Arts announced plans to shutter some of their Facebook games in what was described as a difficult decision. The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society will go offline on June 14, 2013, the company said in a press release on the matter.

EA pointed out that millions of people initially logged in to play these games but since then, the number of players and the amount of activity has fallen off. This likely isn’t a surprise to anyone that has seen other recent shutdowns of social games, EA said.

If you recall, EA filed a lawsuit against social games competitor Zynga last summer. EA said Zynga’s ‘The Ville’ was essentially a direct copy of ‘The Sims Social.’ That lawsuit was settled back in February although terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Players that have enjoyed these games will soon be given a special offer to introduce them to a new PopCap game. Details on this offer weren’t mentioned but we are told they will appear in-game soon. If you have any in-game currency, it’d be wise to go ahead and spend it before the titles are shut down in a couple of months as it isn’t clear if players will be given a refund on unused virtual currency or not.

Moving forward, the publisher will to continue to offer popular titles like Bejeweled Blitz, Solitaire Blitz and Plants vs. Zombies Adventures on Facebook.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52249-electronic-arts-to-shutter-more-facebook-games-soon.html

 

[Trillionsin]

Haven't played a single Facebook game, don't plan to.
I have a vast collection of them in my block list.... why!??!??

 

[TomSEA]

FB games are about the only thing EA can do now and not get (deservedly) slammed.

 

[9Nails]

I played a game on Facebook once, because a cute girl I was interested in played it. The game sucked.

 

[Guest]

The issue with face book games is the monetary model. Once upon a time a company would release a game, host the online servers of facilitate online play at the least. They got the cost of the boxed game and expansions if it was good enough. Roughly $39 per customer initially and up to $20 per expansion.
Today the model is micro transaction, since they have found some people will drop $100 a month in micro transactions, this has become the target margin number. What they have lost is the volume of players by going after the top margin. Until game companies get back to a realistic profit model, they will always have burst games that have no enduring legs, and I agree with the poster above, EA lost their mojo long ago.

 

[St1ckM4n]

I played a game on Facebook once, because a cute girl I was interested in played it. The game sucked.

So did the girl. ZING.

 

[cmbjive]

I played a game on Facebook once, because a cute girl I was interested in played it. The game sucked.

I know the game sucked but did she suck?

 

[TS-56336]

I love the Sims Social. Don't you dare pulling the plug on this EA...

 

[St1ckM4n]

I love the Sims Social. Don't dare pulling the plug on this...

"The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society will go offline on June 14, 2013, "

 

[TS-56336]

"The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society will go offline on June 14, 2013, "

Damn. I spent my youthful hours redecorating and refurbishing my lot. Well at least I didn't have to spend any money for this ...

 

[treetops]

I played zynga poker for awhile, other then that bleh on intrusive\spamming fb games.

 

[St1ckM4n]

I played Farmville back in the day. However, I used a speed hack and trapped my guy in the middle of the field... so my farming time was superhuman.