Anonymous threatens Zynga games leaks for layoffs

Anonymous angry over treatment of staff at games company.

Zynga, the embattled games company behind Facebook hit FarmVille, could have a number of its games leaked and made available for free if it does not scuttle an offshoring plan.

Hacktivists under the Anonymous brand have published what they claim are Zynga corporate documents that reveal its plans to slash 800 jobs by November 23 and offshore its development work to India.

The hackers are threatening to leak games they say they stole from Zynga’s servers unless the company calls off its supposed plan. The company has until November 5 before the files are leaked, they claimed.

Zynga has not commented on the claimed leak, however two files Anonymous had posted on a file-sharing site have been removed for copyright infringements, according to TechCrunch.  

The threats follow Zynga’s announcement last week that it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce, roughly 150 people, and shut down a number of studios across the US, UK and Japan.

Besides the layoffs, Anonymous is riled by what they say is the “outrageous treatment” of Zynga staff, which includes legal action against any person that speaks publicly about the offshoring plan.

Employees have been troubling for Zynga in recent months with rumours about layoffs reportedly causing employees and executives to flee, according to Business Insider, which first reported the Anonymous threat to Zynga.

The supposed leaked transcript of Zynga strategy reads:

Following the preliminary announced of this week the final strategy for the next two quarters has been successfully set to delivery by november 23 an additional but of 800 jobs with further raising of new capital from the market to support businesses.

We've identified our global gambling strategy with bwin.party and as we speak discussions are progressing with a partner to cover the US market.

Work is focused and on-going to completely outsource our development teams in our offices in Bangalore , India to hedge our position in the long term.

We've identified key new products from third parties such as Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime , Shove Prod and Music Invaders in which we are starting business contacts to buy these IP for transaction value of approximately 20 million.

We strongly believe we will conclude these deals this month and compete with this titles against mobile competitors with ease.

Our business continues to evolve and we must evolve with it. We operate in a exciting and challenging industry and I am very pleased that our senior leadership team continue to strengthen and develop with us.

Tags AnonymousFarmvilleZynga

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