Zynga says it is laying off 314 employees, about 15 percent of its workforce, as the game maker's fourth-quarter sales plummet.

The San Francisco company said Thursday that sales in the October-December quarter plunged 43 percent to $176.4 million, worse than the $183.5 million expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

The company's loss came to $25.2 million, or 3 cents per share. That's down from a loss of $48.6 million, or 6 cents per share, in the same months the year before.

The cutbacks are expected to generate savings of $33 million to $35 million this year.

Zynga also says it's buying NaturalMotion, creator of mobile games CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja, for $527 million.