Vince Zampella, one of the men behind the Call of Duty gaming franchise, has died in a car crash on December 21st. He was 55 years old and is survived by his three children.
According to all the information available so far, Zampella hit a concrete barrier at high speed, just off the exit of the Angeles Crest Highway, Southern California. He was exiting a tunnel when his 2022 Ferrari 296 GTS veered off into the barrier. A passenger who was also in the vehicle was ejected, and that person too was killed in the crash.
Vince Zampella is known as one of the most prolific game developers and directors of the modern gaming industry. Before co-creating the Call of Duty franchise, he was also responsible for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the game that established him as one of the best war games developers in the field, at 2015 Inc., in Tulsa.
Alongside Grant Collier and Jason West, he was one of the founders of Infinity Ward, the eponymous studio that handles part of the Call of Duty development to this date. The studio signs off the release of Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the Modern Warfare reboot, and its sequel.
Infinity Ward was one of the main drives between a very public feud between Zampella, West and Activision: after the release of the first Modern Warfare, the game’s commercial success became the point of discussion for the two developers to negotiate better pay and bonuses, as well as creative control of the brand. Activision agreed on the condition that such control would revert to the publisher should both executives be fired.
After years of trying to trigger that clause, Activision finally managed to fire Vince Zampella and Jason West, who went on to form Respawn Entertainment, one of the key studios behind Activision’s main competitors — Electronic Arts (EA) — banner, in 2010. Respawn is responsible for titles such as Titanfall, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Fallen Order and its sequel, Jedi Survivor.
The new studio’s success was such that EA took it upon itself to name Zampella the new head of development of the Battlefield franchise. The brand’s most recent release, Battlefield 6, has surpassed the 20 million sales mark as of December 21st, ironically, the same date as Vince Zampella’s death, according to data from Allied Analytics.
Before videogames, Vince Zampella did a bit of everything
Born Vincent Walter Zampella II in October 1st, 1970, “Vince” would try and unsuccessfully enroll at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale. Failing that, he worked as a handyman before a friend helped him land a job at a local game company. While in there, Zampella was responsible for testing new game releases and answering phones.
His resume also boasts brands like GameTek, Atari (where he helped the company to launch its PC division), Panasonic Interactive Media/Ripcord Games and SegaSoft — the latter is where he met Jason West, his soon-to-be-partner on Infinity Ward’s founding.
Due to his passing, Vince Zampella received several praising messages all over social media: on X/Twitter, both Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment shared their thoughts on the director’s legacy:
Also from X, legendary Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator and current head of Kojima Productions, Hideo Kojima, shared his condolences:
The official Call of Duty profile also paid tribute to their former executive:
And finally, Electronic Arts’ main account have also joined in condolences for Vince Zampella, adding comments of its own while reposting Respawn’s original words:
