Zynga VP Castle Leaves For Casino Product Company

Zynga vice president of studios Lou Castle says he is leaving the company less than six months after his arrival, citing work/life balance issues as the driving factor for his departure. Las Vegas-based casino product company Shuffle Master has announced that Castle will serve the company in a newly created chief strategy officer position, after serving on the company's board of directors for six years. The Zynga VP told IndustryGamers that the ceaseless responsibilities he faced in his latest position were interfering with other parts of his life too much. "The Zynga gig was clearly a 5 day a week, 24/7 requirement," he said. "[I have] twins in senior year of high school and [Shuffle Master's] a local job. Life's too short, so I couldn't resist." Well known as the creator of Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer real-time strategy series, Castle worked for years as an executive at EA before serving as CEO at defunct web-gaming company InstantAction. He joined Zynga in March after InstantAction wound down operations late last year.