Legendary social farming sim FarmVille will shut down at the end of the year. The announcement comes after 11 years of the game’s existence online.
Zynga, the mobile dev company and creators of FarmVille, announced they would shut all game operations. Microtransactions will stop on November 17, while the game is playable until December 31.
FV to discontinue due to Adobe
The decision to close off Zynga’s legacy title comes from Adobe’s decisions. By end of the year, Adobe will discontinue the distribution and update of Adobe Flash Player. Due to this security issue, Facebook is also stopping the support for Flash and, by extension, FV.
FV was once the top browser game, especially during the early 2010s. It sustained Facebook during its early years and created a genre of famous browser titles. It was also the first social farming sim, perfecting the coop aspect of the genre.
“Following an incredible 11 years since its initial launch back in 2009, we are officially announcing the closure of the original FarmVille game on Facebook,” said Zynga in a statement. “As previously stated, Adobe will stop distributing and updating Flash Player for all web browsers, and Facebook will stop supporting Flash games on the platform completely after December 31st, 2020. FarmVille will therefore, be directly affected as a result of this.”
“We hope that the in-game experiences we’ve developed over the years have provided you with the highest level of entertainment that we strive to fulfill here at Zynga. We look forward to you joining us in Farmville 2: Tropic Escape and the upcoming worldwide launch of FarmVille 3 on mobile.”
FV helped kickstart mobile gaming
FarmVille, as a game, received a wide panning across critics and game designers alike. The addictive nature of the title, together with its social aspects, pushed dedication to its limits. Even then, it was effective, and people loved it.
At one point, research showed the game had an all-time peak of 83.76 million users. The average daily users the game had in 2010 peaked at 34.5 million active users. The title was lightning in a bottle that died down in subsequent years.
FV was social dopamine at its worst. The game was mindless and introduced some of the worst things about microtransactions. Even then, it was a fun, simple time for those who played it.
Young and old alike connected through their farms. It became the predecessor to what people know as the mobile gaming genre, for better or worse. FarmVille will be available to play on Facebook until its discontinuation on December 31, 2020.
Featured image courtesy of FarmVille/Facebook