Vince Zampella, co-founder of Respawn and responsible for the Battlefield franchise at Electronic Arts, among other IPs, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles. The accident has caused sadness throughout the industry.
With Vince Zampella's passing, the gaming industry has lost not only one of its most colorful developers, but also the man who, together with Jason West, shaped the first-person shooter genre over the past 20 years like no other. As reported by the US press and confirmed by Electronic Arts, Zampella died on Monday in Los Angeles in a car accident that claimed two lives. He was 55 years old.
Zampella is best known as the creator of the billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise, which he developed for many years together with Jason West, with whom he founded the studio Infinity Ward in 2002, which later realized the Modern Warfare storyline in the Call of Duty franchise.
However, his work in the shooter sector began much earlier. Zampella and West had already collaborated on the successful early titles of the Medal of Honor games. At the time, they were effectively poached by Activision, which played a key role in financing Infinity Ward.
In 2010, Activision and Zampella/West fell out, prompting the two to leave Infinity Ward and found Respawn Entertainment with the support of EA, where they developed games such as Titenfall, Apex Legends, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Zampella also took on more responsibility within EA. In 2021 (in German), the company, which had long been unable to match the success of Call of Duty with its Battlefield games, decided to restructure its shooter business and handed over responsibility for the franchise to Zampella. He made some tough decisions, including personnel changes at the original Battlefield studio, DICE.
The launch of Battlefield 6, the first major release in the series after Zampella took the helm, shows that he clearly made the right adjustments. BF6 is considered the most played new game of the year (excluding mobile games) and is likely responsible for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 performing massively below expectations.
Despite the rivalry between publishers and studios, Zampella is greatly respected on both sides. Not only Respawn Entertainment, but also Activision studios Infinity Ward and Treyarch have commented on the co-founder's death on social media. We can only echo their words: Our sincere condolences go out to Vince Zampella's family, friends, and colleagues.
