One of the Zynga offices in San Francisco where many employees had to be laid off (creative commons)

It seems that the social gaming company behind Words with Friends and FarmVille just can’t seem to get any good publicity these days.

After Zynga announced that it would be laying off 520 of its employees – approximately 20 percent of its workforce – the company’s stock dropped from $3.40 to $2.99, or the equivalent of one of its paid apps.

Zynga wasn’t always this clumsy. The San Francisco-based company – named after CEO Mark Pincus’s bulldog – started turning heads when it launched FarmVille on Facebook in July 2009. 

Two years and 2,800 employees later, Zynga decided to go public as well as purchase OMGPOP, the makers of Draw Something, for $200 million. 

But Draw Something turned out to be a short-lived game, a harbinger of more Zynga gaffes to come.

The first of Zynga’s headaches came in October 2012 when Zynga let go of 150 employees to save the company $15 million. Then Facebook dropped its preference partnership with Zynga.

In April 2013, both Zynga’s first-quarter revenue and monthly user count dropped 18 and 13 percent respectively, a harrowing sign that the company was in hot water.

And most recently, the aforementioned employee exodus played out, which shutdown Zynga’s offices in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles and dismissed the entire OMGPOP staff.

In response to these layoffs, Pincus released a statement on Zynga’s blog saying:

“The scale that served us so well in building and delivering the leading social gaming service on the Web is now making it hard to successfully lead across mobile and multiplatform, which is where social games are going to be played.

Mobile and touch screens are revolutionizing gaming. Our opportunity is to make mobile gaming truly social by offering people new, fun ways to meet, play and connect. By reducing our cost structure today we will offer our teams the runway they need to take risks and develop these breakthrough new social experiences.”

Though Zynga is still a strong player in mobile apps with major titles like Poker by Zynga and Running with Friends ranked in the top 20 grossing apps, the likes of King.com’s Candy Crush Saga and Finnish game publisher Supercell’s major hits Clash of Clans and Hay Day have made the already competitive mobile gaming industry even more cutthroat.

It isn’t certain what the “risks” that Pincus mentions are exactly, but the layoffs will save the company $70 million to $80 million, giving employees and execs plenty of wiggle room to dabble in these “new social experiences.” 

via Twitter

Some ex-Zynga employees took to the internet to express their thoughts on the situation.

A former OMGPOP employee described the company’s reaction to the news and said, “Most layoffs are sad. You imagine big corporate settings where security is there to lead people out of the office so they don’t make a scene. This was the opposite. Music was being played loudly, and people were ripping up Zynga hoodies and T-shirts.”

On Reddit, an ex-Zynga employee took questions from users on an Ask Me Anything thread. This former employee, who went by the username “former_zyngite,” said that the layoff was “Totally out of the blue” and that “[He] wasn’t expecting to be a part of it if it did happen.” 

Despite the number of people left jobless after this debacle, recruiters for gaming startups have already started scouting for ex-Zynga developers.

Scopely, the social gaming startup behind Dice with Buddies and Mini Golf MatchUp, is offering anyone who can help recruit a former Zyngite a chance to win a free trip to one of the seven wonders of the world.  

In the past, former employees at Zynga have left the company to launch their own startups. JuiceBox Games, for instance, was founded by Zynga alums Michael Martinez, Zak Pytlak and Jackson McGuirk. The startup, which now consists of 12 people, is working on HonorBound, a card-collecting game that will rival Zynga’s own War of the Fallen card game. 

Zynga, on the other hand, isn’t left with very many options.

The company can continue with its current business plan and hope for the best, or serious changes could be made. If Zynga wants to fix its reputation, the company first needs to address its internal communication issues. 

Perhaps a round of Words with Friends might be the best way to go, for the time being. Then it’s back to the drawing board.

Reach staff reporter Sara Clayton here. Follow her here.