UPDATE: Zynga has now confirmed that it let go of five percent of its roughly 3,200 employees earlier today, as part of a cost reduction plan that "includes significant cuts in spending on data hosting, advertising and outside services, primarily contractors."

Zynga's Boston studio will be closed immediately, and the company's Japan and UK studios are being slated for similar shutdowns in the future. The Austin office was also hit with significant layoffs. All four affected offices sprang out of existing social and casual game companies that Zynga acquired in recent years. The social gaming giant is also using the opportunity to shut down 13 of its older games and "significantly reducing our investment in The Ville."

Zynga is expected to announce another weaker-than-expected earnings report tomorrow.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Details are still sketchy, but reports are flooding in that Zynga has let go of a significant number of employees in a surprise move this afternoon.

San Francisco designer Justin Maxwell tweets word from a friend affected by the move. According to him, the layoffs include over 100 employees from Zynga's Austin office. Gamasutra reports that Chicago and Boston may be similarly in line for downsizing. Employees were reportedly notified of their firing during Apple's recent keynote event and given two hours to vacate the premises.

Gamasutra's source also reports the staffing moves mark an end for the Boston-developed social game The Ville. The title is currently involved in a legal battle over similarities with EA's SimCity Social. The Ville has been hemorrhaging players of late, falling from 51 million monthly active users in August to 17.5 million today, according to AppData.

Today's reports come amidst historically weak earnings reports for Zynga, as well as insider trading investigations and a variety of pending lawsuits for the once-thriving company.

It's hard to say if the reported layoffs mark the beginning of the company's unraveling or just a temporary shrinkage and restabilization. Even with three studios closed, however, Zynga will still operate 16 offices in locations ranging from San Francisco and Seattle to Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Zynga stock dropped more than four percent to an all-time low of $2.22 as of this writing. Overall, that's down from a high of nearly $15 in March. Meanwhile, studios ranging from Harmonix to thatgamecompany have taken to Twitter to promote their own job openings to affected Zynga staffers.

Ars will continue to follow this story and update this piece if new information arises.