Zynga’s most recent round of investors are losers in its IPO game.

The social-gaming company set a range for its shares yesterday on the way to its public debut, valuing it at around $7 billion — a significant drop from the value it commanded in a $490 million investing round in March.

Zynga is looking to raise $1 billion selling 100 million shares — a 15 percent float — at between $8.50 and $10 a piece, according to papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday.

The price range set for the public share sale is less than the company was worth in March when Zynga was valued at $14 a share. Several new investors bought in at that price, including Morgan Stanley, the lead banker for the public offering.

T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments also participated in the $490 million fundraising round.

“There are purchasers out there that bought at a price much higher than the IPO range and there were also repurchases of company stock over the past year higher than the IPO price,” said a source close to Zynga. “The valuation has obviously come down.”

Today, the 34.9 million shares sold in March are worth $349 million, or $141 million less than they were.

The tech landscape has shifted dramatically since March, when investors were clamoring for pieces of any company tied to social media. Zynga’s public filings defended its soaring valuation at that time by pointing to its peers, which drew similarly wild investments.

“In late February 2011, our comparable companies achieved significant increases in their valuations, including comparable public companies as well as comparative private entities, including Facebook Inc. and Groupon Inc.,” Zynga said in its filings.

The exuberance took Zynga shares from $6.43 in January to $14.03 by March. That’s when CEO Mark Pincus cashed in: Zynga repurchased 7.84 million of his shares for $109.5 million, a transaction that today would cost the company $78.4 million at the high end of the price range.

Zynga also repurchased shares at their March peak from early investors such as Institutional Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Venture Capital and Avalon Ventures.

People close to the process said shares could price higher once bankers gauge demand from the road show, which starts next week.