Zynga CCO Mike Verdu quits

Zynga’s chief creative officer Mike Verdue has quit the social gaming giant.

Following the loss of Alan Patmore to Kixeye, this marks the second departure of a high-level executive at the company in just two weeks.

Verdu has left to form a new mobile studio, in which Zynga will be an investor.

“I personally don’t want to add to the noise level,” Verdu told AllthingsD.

“I think this will be a good thing for me and for Zynga. I’m concerned about how this might be viewed with what else is going on, but it’s not a function of anything else going on at the company.”

Verdu joined the FarmVille developer in 2009, influncing games like Empires & Allies, FrontierVille, and Castleville.

Though he admits this isn’t the best timing for Zynga, this won’t be a complete loss for the company, which is investing in Verdu’s venture and will publish his games on its third-party platform.

Zynga’s stock has been tumbling ever since the disasterous Facebook IPO, and there are reports that company morale has sunk to an all-time low.