Zynga Pulls Plug on YoVille - Million$ in YoCash evaporate!

Peter Martin · 2014-03-05T17:29:08

Zynga announced yesterday that its pulling the plug on its widely popular, 6 year running social game, YoVille with 90 days advance notice to users. Acquired initially from Big Tree (now Big Viking Games) Zynga positioned the unique social network game prominently and made millions off sales of its YoCash and advertising , YoVille is highly unique in that it offers a real-time chat/emoto communication system that engages Facebook players into its virtual society with seasonal products and holiday themed events that pushed the envelope for virtual asset sales like no other game before it, Is YoVilles ship sunk yet? Not so fast... The user base is really vocal and already a number of grass root efforts are underway. And now here is some rumor that initial developer may have interest in re-obtaining the license to right this great ship before she settles in the mud for good. YoVilles customer base is unique, many "die hards" NEED yoville as a social outlet whether they are shut ins, paraplegic, deaf, or have that catfush tendency Yoville is one of a few remaining places where physical attrributes are ignored, individual obscurity accepted and the avatars that care and look after each other, Its the best place for dynamic, toon-face drama! What do you think about Zynga de-funding and killing a project that holds paid consumer assets in its servers? It may be legal according to the games EULA & TOS, however is it right? Some folks have not even spent their yocash holdings and others have not explored all their achievements.

Games Business and Law Business

Started by Dream Cutter January 10, 2014 10:36 PM

165 comments, last by JTippetts 10 years, 1 month ago

Servant of the Lord

33,739

February 03, 2014 07:22 PM

It sucks that they bought NaturalMotion - NaturalMotion was originally a research company and middleware developer, and I doubt Zynga is going to keep on investing in the middleware. Maybe Havok (Intel) could buy NaturalMotion's middleware business.

ambershee

532

February 05, 2014 12:33 PM

Either that or Matrick is forcing them to change tact entirely. Matrick isn't Pincus, after all, and this could be the first part of a larger scale shakeup now that Facebook is in decline as a platform.

Dream Cutter

237

Author

February 11, 2014 04:34 AM

Breaking news is...deal has been struck between Zynga and BMG...(rumors in validation)

Against all odds - looks like the layers have their way!

This posted by Zynga Friday as a hint:

Yoville Update
Howdy YoVillians!

We are in ongoing discussions with Big Viking Games about the possible sale of YoVille.

We don’t take the decision to sunset a game lightly, and want you to know that we are listening to your feedback as we continue to explore potential options for YoVille.

Regards,
Ivory Ninja and the Yoville team
http://forums.yoville.com/showthread.php?1591919-Yoville-Update

Also NBC News carried the massive response and vocal "Save Yoville" rallies story here: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/game-thousands-yovillers-rally-doomed-virtual-town-n25001

3DSkyDome.com animated sky boxes and instant 3d Android & WebGL publishing.

Dream Cutter

237

Author

March 03, 2014 04:55 PM

And The Word is.... wait a bit more...

http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/03/ceo-don-mattrick-shows-his-poker-hand-for-turning-around-zynga-in-mobile-interview/

3DSkyDome.com animated sky boxes and instant 3d Android & WebGL publishing.

Dream Cutter

237

Author

March 05, 2014 04:18 PM

NEWS: YOVILLE Spared! Yoville Update - March 5th 2014

Dear YoVille Players,

We want to thank you for your continued support of YoVille over the last 5 years. The outpouring of love you have showed for YoVille, and your dedication to the communities you have nurtured over the years in the game has inspired all of us at Zynga.

As some of you might know, we’ve had ongoing discussions with Big Viking Games, the original creators of YoVille, about ways we can work together to help keep the YoVille community alive. We are continuing to have those conversations and explore the future of YoVille and, as a result, will not be shutting down the game as planned on March 31.

We will have more updates to share with you soon, as our conversations with Big Viking Games progress and we determine next steps for the game, but we wanted to make sure you heard the news first as many of you have dedicated time over the last couple months to showing your support for YoVille and sharing your heartfelt stories about what the game means to you.

Sincerely,
The Zynga Team