Social game company Zynga has announced that six of its games were going offline, including The Pioneer Trail. Formerly, FrontierVille, the homestead-building game was set in the Wild West and was one of Zynga’s most popular, attracting huge numbers of monthly active players.
The popularity of The Pioneer Trail fell drastically in recent years, like all the Zynga games in the recent past and so this closure announcement does not come as a surprise. The game in 2010 had a whopping 60 million players due to the realistic theme of the game but saw a decline due to fantasy items. First spotted by CEGamers, The Pioneer Trail will close on 30 April 2015.
The company issued a statement on the game’s Facebook fan page that reads:
Thanks for being a great member of the ‘Pioneer Trail’ community — we loved delivering you a fun experience. We don’t take the decision to sunset our games lightly but we made the tough decision to shutdown ‘Pioneer Trail’ so our team of game makers can put their passion, energy and time into developing new games.
In addition to The Pioneer Trail, Zynga has also announced a 30 April closure date for five more games, which include some mobile titles: Zynga Slots, Duck Dynasty Slots, Riches of Olympus, Ayakashi: Ghost Guild and FarmVillage (a title launched by Zynga China at the end of Q4 2014).
Zynga recently shut shop in China due poor Q4 results and lowered its forecast results for the ongoing first quarter. Zynga wants to focus on new games that are currently on its plate and it expects them to launch this year.