RIP, Vince Zampella - pioneering game developer and co-creator of Call of Duty

The veteran game industry leader and hitmaker was killed in a single-car crash, along with a passenger

Vince Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty, and the head of EA’s Battlefield franchise during the series’ current surge of success, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles on Sunday, NBC Los Angeles reports. He was 55.

Zampella’s death immediately sent shockwaves through a games industry winding down for the holiday break.

Many people who work in or around gaming—including me—recently saw Zampella in LA at The Game Awards earlier this month, socializing with his peers. He’d had good reason to be upbeat, after helping lead EA’s Battlefield series to one of 2025’s most successful launches.

NBC reported today that Zampella died in a single-car crash on Sunday afternoon. The driver and passenger of the car both died. The identity of the other victim was not publicized. Update - Dec. 23, 10:17am: NBC LA’s updated report indicates that Zampella was the driver of the car, a Ferrari, which California Highway Patrol said veered off the road after exiting a tunnel, hitting a concrete barrier.

A rep from EA shared the following statement with Game File:

This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work. Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching. A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world. His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come.

Zampella’s storied career dates back to the late 1990s, when he worked at 2015 Inc on EA’s World War II shooter series Medal of Honor. In 2002, he co-founded Infinity Ward, the studio that would birth one of the biggest gaming series of all time, Call of Duty, for Activision.

Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, released in 2007, was among the most influential games in history, offering a memorable cinematic first-person shooter campaign and a multiplayer mode with match-to-match stat-based leveling up that would become an industry standard.

In 2010, after an acrimonious split with Activision, Zampella and Infinity Ward co-founder Jason West formed Respawn Entertainment, which would go on to develop the critically acclaimed Titanfall first-person shooter series and the well-regarded third-person action-adventure Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. Respawn also developed Apex Legends, one of the few battle royale games to break through in a field dominated by Fortnite and PUBG.

Respawn sold to EA in 2017, and Zampella moved into a role overseeing even more games. That portfolio eventually included the occasionally-struggling Battlefield franchise. An overhaul of development teams led to this fall’s hit Battlefield 6.

While I didn’t know Zampella well, our occasional chats and interviews over the years showed me a person who came off as far more humble than those aforementioned accolades might suggest. Soft-spoken and pleasant, he gave the air of someone happy to try to lead teams toward success.

“I’m now in charge of helping these amazing groups of people get to something great,” he told me in 2023, as we discussed his then-new role steering Battlefield as well as the continued efforts of his Respawn teams.

At the time, EA’s Respawn team was about to release their second Star Wars title, Jedi: Survivor. As we were wrapping up the interview, Zampella assured me it was way better than the original game, which was already considered fantastic. I wasn’t sure if this was just standard hype. It wasn’t. Later, once I played the game, I’d tell him I agreed with his sentiment. I respected that he hadn’t offered unearned praise.

During that 2023 interview, I mentioned to Zampella that he was often credited as having an uncommonly hit-filled career.

He chuckled softly.

I asked him if he felt pressure. Did he feel like people looked for him to provide a magic touch to everything he worked on? I was curious what his goals were when managing his teams.

“I’m definitely feeling the pressure after that question,” he joked.

“I think we take what we do seriously,” he said. “Like, it’s entertainment, but at the same time it’s what we do, [something] we put a lot of our lives, a lot of our attention and focus into.

“So we do take it very seriously. We want to do something that’s received well, that’s great, that people love…

“I think [we’re] always challenging ourselves, as well. I guess the reason [Star Wars Jedi] Fallen Order existed, was because we wanted to do something… You know, we were kind of getting pigeonholed a little bit into: ’Oh, I’m the shooter guy.’ And it’s like, ‘But I’m not. That’s not what I love, you know, exclusively.’

“At the end of the day, it’s interactive entertainment. So that interactive portion has to feel good. That’s always what it comes back to…The story can be great, and it has to be great, especially in Star Wars, right? But if it doesn’t feel good, who cares? You’d be better off watching a show on Disney Plus or something. So we have to bring our element to it. And that is that the touch, the feel—it’s got to feel good.”