After 11 years of large success on Facebook,FarmVillehas officially shut down on the social media website due to the discontinuation of Flash Player. However, development forFarmVille’s mobile versions will continue.
While Facebook began peaking in the late 2000s,FarmVillereleased in 2009, and shortly after became the most widely played game on the site with over 83 million monthly active users. At the time, thoughthe farm simulator was so popularamong Facebook users at the time, many reviewers, video game designers, and critics gaveFarmVillea negative review for its mindless chores being so addictive.
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This type of mindless task completion is all too common among mobile games now, but back in 2009 when the firstFarmVillegame released, life-sim style games on mobile devices, such asAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campor time-wasting puzzle games likeCandy Crush Saga, hadn’t yet become mainstream. Rather,FarmVillewould inspire ideas for other games likeCafe Lifeas well as two sequels to the original farming simulation game.
Eventually, however, mobile gaming would become more prominent as it could be played on-the-go, andFarmVillewould get ported to iOS devices. Publisher Zynga hashigh hopes forFarmVille 3on mobile devices, which is currently in development. So despite the farming simulation game losing playability on Facebook and web browsers, fans ofFarmVillecan still experience the mobile games on their phones.
FarmVille’s closure on Facebook is due toFlash Player no longer being supportedon any major web browser. Adobe announced that it would end support for Flash Player back in 2017, and Microsoft began planning to remove it from the Windows OS entirely. Apple’s latest OS, Big Sur, also removes software compatibility for Flash Player.
