Zynga has announced that after 11 years, its social media farm sim game FarmVille will close in December.

The company put out a statement at the weekend on its website detailing the circumstances of the closure:

“Following an incredible 11 years since its initial launch back in 2009, we are officially announcing the closure of the original FarmVille game on Facebook. As previously stated, Adobe will stop distributing and updating Flash Player for all web browsers, and Facebook will stop supporting Flash games on the platform completely after December 31st, 2020. FarmVille will therefore be directly affected as a result of this.”

“We’re aware that many of you have been with us since the very beginning, helping to build an incredible global community of players over the years who’ve enjoyed this game just as much as we have. For that we say thank you.”

It then goes on to detail what will happen in the game between now and the closure. In-app purchases are still available until 17th November, at which point the payment system will shut off and refunds not be processed. Any remaining credits players have can still be used after that date.

FarmVille will still remain playable up until the end of December, and Zynga is planning in-game activities and events for players in its last few months. The game is available through social media sites Facebook and Microsoft’s MSN Games (yes, that still exists), as well as on mobile devices.

FarmVille originally launched in 2009 and saw more than 83 million monthly active users at its peak. Its popularity declined over the last decade, but Zynga hopes any players still left will migrate over to FarmVille 2 in anticipation of the third game’s worldwide launch.

Considering how FarmVille would pave the way for the type of free-to-play titles we have today, there's no doubt it will go down in history as a massive game-changer. If you’re still playing FarmVille in 2020, you have until 31st December to set your affairs in order before it’s gone for good.