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Zynga's chief game designer departs

Brian Reynolds has made his exit at Zynga

Zynga has lost another executive as chief game designer Brian Reynolds has decided to make his exit. Reynolds is the latest in a long list of executive departures that include chief operating officer John Schappert, chief creative officer Mike Verdu, chief financial officer David Wehner, chief security officer Nils Puhlmann, chief marketing officer Jeff Karp, and chief technical officer of Infrastructure Allan Leinwand. 2012 was not a good year for Zynga.

"Brian has a long history in the game industry and has been a great partner to the creative leaders at Zynga," Zynga president of games Steve Chiang told Polygon in a statement. "I want to thank him for his leadership of the Zynga Baltimore studio in the design and development of FrontierVille, which brought many innovations to social gaming. We appreciate Brian's contribution and we're proud of the deep bench of creative leaders who are leading the next wave of game innovation at Zynga. We wish Brian the best in his next chapter."

Reynolds founded Zynga East in Baltimore, Maryland in 2009 after leaving his position at 38 Studios as creative director. While at Zynga, he contributed to the development of Frontierville and CityVille 2.

Zynga did not confirm the date of Reynolds' official exit from the company, but his vacancy will not improve investor confidence in the company. Zynga's stock closed today at $2.60; not the lowest the company has been, but a far cry of its all-time high of $15.91.

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Mike Williams avatar
Mike Williams: M.H. Williams is new to the journalism game, but he's been a gamer since the NES first graced American shores. Third-person action-adventure games are his personal poison: Uncharted, Infamous, and Assassin's Creed just to name a few. If you see him around a convention, he's not hard to spot: Black guy, glasses, and a tie.
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