Zynga battered after lowering 2012 outlook

Zynga saw shares decline sharply on Thursday as the company announced that it was cutting its 2012 outlook for the second time in two months.

The internet game-maker has been struggling recently with delays of its most popular games and a failure of its most recent acquisition to match past success.

Much of the decline is blamed on decreased user interest in the popular title, "CityVille."

In addition, it's $182 million acquisition of game-maker OMGPOP was also costly as the company failed to produce another hit after "DrawSomething."

Reuters reported that shares in Zynga fell 18 percent to $2.30, a record low for the company, after the projection was forecast.

The stock went public in December, according to MarketWatch, at around $10 per share.

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Shares hit record highs in March around $14 per share.

The company said Thursday that its earnings in 2012 would be between $147 million and $162 million.

That's a signficant decrease from its previous outlook that pegged earnings between $180 million to $250 million for the year, said Reuters.

Zynga CEO, Mark Pincus was blunt about the problems the company faces and what it has to do to bounce back.

"The challenges we faced in our web business in Q2 continued in Q3 and while many of our games achieved plan, we still experienced overall weakness in the invest and express category," said Pincus on a blog post.

"To address this we’re further investing in other genres like casino where we already lead with Zynga Poker and blue PVP, a category we pioneered with Mafia Wars, and now have the opportunity to reinvent with the industry’s best talent here at Zynga.”