Zynga Removes Second-Ranked Mafia Wars From MySpace

Zynga has removed its popular text-based crime simulator Mafia Wars from MySpace, effective Monday, directing players to a Facebook-connected version of the game at MafiaWars.com instead. The title had been the second-most-popular game on MySpace as recently as March, according to an Inside Social Games report, with over 13 million users reported by the social network. It's unclear how many of those counted players were still playing the game regularly. Other Zynga titles are still available on the News Corp.-owned social network, such as Zynga Poker, although YoVille and Fashion Wars are no longer provided on MySpace. Zynga's most popular titles, CityVille and FarmVille, have never been available on MySpace. Mafia Wars attracts enjoys over 14 million players on Facebook, according to AppData, making it the 12th most popular app on that network. A Zynga representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the MySpace removal. A March ComScore report shows MySpace falling from 93 million unique users to 63 million in the space of a year, with 10 million monthly users leaving the site between January and February. Social game publishers including Playdom and RockYou have removed support for multiple titles from MySpace amidst this visitor decline, as Inside Social Games reported last month. Zynga abruptly removed popular app Street Racing from both MySpace and Facebook last July, upsetting some fans. Last May, MySpace introduced a Game Lab pilot project in an effort to attract developers to its faltering social network. Zynga hired away former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta last August.