Zynga Pulls Plug on Game; Paying Customers Pissed

Zynga, the developer of all those Facebook games millions love to hate, just gave us another reason to hate them. A popular title in the Zynga empire called Street Racing will be shutting down on August 2nd. Zynga has decided to take down the servers for the semi-popular game, and released a post on its forums about the shutdown. In it, Zynga tells Street Racing lovers to “try out Frontierville”, another game they’ve been pushing towards popularity for a few months.

The problem is that Street Racing, along with every other Zynga title, has a pay option, where you can spend money on bigger and better elements for your characters in their respective games (why anyone would want to spend money on anything Zynga offers is beyond me, however). Thus, if Zynga shuts down a game, say goodbye to all of the cash you ponied up for whatever special element you wanted. That’s just what is happening here, with Zynga giving nothing to Street Racing users in return for their wasted money.

This has rightfully enraged many Street Racing users. On top of Zynga not apologizing for the shutdown, or offering some sort of compensation to those who spent money, they’ve tried to peddle a different kind of game to them. It’s amazing what a company will do to keep customers while at the same time shitting all over them. In retaliation, some Street Racing patrons took it upon themselves to start a boycott of the company on its forums. They’ve also taken to the comments section of an older Develop article (about a lawsuit against Zynga) to vent their frustrations. I can’t decide who has more egg on their face in this story; the users who wasted their money, or the greedy, heartless developer who will do anything for a dollar.