The Original FarmVille Is Being Put Out to Pasture at the End of the Year

One of the original titans of Facebook gaming is closing down. The social media-powered farming simulator FarmVille is shutting down the ranch on Dec. 31, 2020.

Developer Zynga confirmed the shutdown in an announcement. The move seems directly tied to the death of Flash at the end of the year, which is when Adobe will cease support of Flash Player for all web browsers. Facebook will also stop supporting Flash games on its platform as well.

Zynga is carrying on with more farming, though. Two different FarmVille sequels, Tropic Escape and Country Escape, already exist, and FarmVille 3 will launch on mobile at some point in the future.

FarmVille was something of a revolution when it came out in 2009, quickly becoming the standard bearer for an increasingly popular form of Facebook game. They're the games that your extended family plays on their downtime at work. Even other game franchises like Animal Crossing seem to have taken note of the potential for social-focused gaming with Pocket Camp.

While other farming simulators are the ones you're more used to hearing about, FarmVille disappearing is another sign of how big Flash's departure from the internet will be. Work has already been underway to preserve many Flash projects, from old branded Flash games found on various websites to casual creations.

It doesn't seem like those projects will be able to save everything. At least for FarmVille, it looks like the ur-Facebook game will be headed to the farm upstate at the end of the year.