PopCap Closes Down Baking Life

Baking Life's user numbers just aren't sweet enough to keep the game alive any more, so PopCap is permanently shutting the oven doors.

Virtual bakers, I come to you with sad news: PopCap has decided to shut down Baking Life. The decision's been a long time coming, since the game's future was up in the air after PopCap acquired Facebook developer ZipZapPlay last April. Even though the game still has about 100,000 folks playing every day, that's just not enough to keep it operating.

Speaking to Inside Social Games, Garth Chouteau, PopCap's VP of Communications said:

"Unfortunately, we had to make a very difficult decision to shut down the game. The Baking Life player numbers have dropped in such a way that Baking Life is no longer performing well enough to justify continued support. As such, we are reallocating resources to games that we are developing for future release."

It's hard to fault PopCap for its decision, purely based on the numbers data. Although Baking Life had nearly 7 million monthly players whipping up online pastries, the current number has deflated to roughly 760,000. PopCap is promising that Baking Life players will receive in-game "rewards" within other titles like Bejeweled and Zuma.

Source: Inside Social Games