Zynga’s newly reinstated CEO cutting over 350 jobs

“FarmVille,” you say? Zynga’s headquarters this year will look more like a bloody scene from a first-person shooter game.

The San Francisco-based video-game maker said Wednesday it will slash 18 percent of its workforce by the fourth quarter as it looks to cut $100 million in costs.

The carnage is expected to claim 364 employees, and comes as founder and Chairman Mark Pincus is retaking the helm as chief executive in a bid to turn around the troubled publisher of games like “FarmVille,” “Words With Friends” and “CSR Racing.”

Word of the job cuts, as usual, cheered investors, who sent shares up as much as 11 percent in extended trading, after the stock closed 4.4 percent higher at $2.61.

By comparison, Zynga’s shares had tumbled as much as 15 percent on April 9 after the company announced Pincus would succeed Don Mattrick as chief.

Pincus, who had gained a reputation as a prickly, impatient manager by the time he stepped down in mid-2013, signaled Wednesday that he is slashing the number of games along with the payroll.

Casualties will include sports games, a category Zynga entered for the first time last year. That means shuttering its Orlando studio that developed NFL Showdown, a fantasy football game.

Zynga had a first-quarter loss of $46.5 million, smaller than last year’s $61.2 million loss, and less than Wall Street’s forecast. Revenue was $183 million.

The results “reflect the progress we have made in our transition to mobile,” Pincus said in a statement.