With CityVille 2 on the way out, so is its studio, Zynga East

Oh, and three other locations across the nation will be consolidated. According to VentureBeat, the FarmVille creator has opted to shut down Zynga East in Baltimore, Md. (responsible for CityVille 2) and consolidate multiple studios housed in three locations . Zynga's enormous workforce will suffer a 1 percent--about 30 people--decrease as a result.

While 30 people are officially out of jobs, which is never good news, the consolidation of the company's New York and Texas studios will not result in large numbers of layoffs in those areas, VentureBeat reports. Specifically, the two New York studios--made up of former Area/Code and OMGPOP employees--are one, the two Austin studios are now a single entity and the McKinney, Texas folks will move into Zynga Dallas.

"While these decisions are always difficult, these steps will affect approximately 1 percent of our workforce and enable us to focus our resources on the most significant growth opportunities," Zynga COO David Ko said to VentureBeat in a statement. Zynga said that it is currently trying to find jobs for the now-displaced Zynga Baltimore employees.

Given the close proximity between these consolidated studios--for instance, the two New York and Austin studios are no more than a mile apart--the impact from these decisions shouldn't be terribly severe. (For those still with jobs, of course.) Regardless, taking these changes into account with the sweeping moves made last year, the only way to go from here is up ... right?

Are you bummed about CityVille 2 going? What do you think these changes mean for Zynga for the rest of 2013? Add Comment.