Zynga chief Mark Pincus revealed that Zynga Boston will close; proposed closures of Zynga Japan and UK studios; total layoffs will amount to a 5 percent company-wide headcount dip.

Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus has confirmed earlier reports of major layoffs at the social game publisher, detailing that 5 percent of the company's total workforce will be laid off in an internal restructure designed to "streamline" Zynga's future operations.

In an internal memo to staff, Pincus revealed that Zynga will be shutting down its Boston studio, and has proposed closures of its Japan and UK studios.

Further, the company will be "sunsetting" 13 of its older games and "significantly reducing" its investment in The Ville.

Pincus also confirmed that the company is reducing its staff at the Zynga Austin studio, and making a number of partner team reductions, although these were not specified in the memo.

"In all, we will unfortunately be parting ways with approximately 5 percent of our full-time workforce," Pincus said in the memo.

"We don't take these decisions lightly, as we recognise the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them."

Pincus said these changes come as part of an overall cost-reduction plan that also includes significant cuts in spending on data hosting, advertising, and contractors. According to Pincus, these reductions--along with Zynga's efforts to "implement more stringent budget and resource allocation" around new games and projects--will improve the company's profitability in the future.

"I'm confident this puts us on the right path to deliver on the promise of social gaming and make Zynga into an internet treasure," Pincus said.

Zynga is headquartered in San Francisco, California. In addition to operations in Austin, Texas, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company has branches in numerous North American cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Eugene, Los Angeles, Los Gatos, McKinney, New York, San Diego, and Seattle.

Zynga also has a significant international presence. The company currently has outfits in Bangalore, Dublin, Beijing, Farnham, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto.

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