Vince Zampella, one of the co-creators of the bestselling Call of Duty video game franchise, has died in a car wreck. He was 55 years old.
The designer was one of the cofounders of pioneering games studio Infinity Ward, and also worked on a string of high-profile games including Medal of Honor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Battlefield 6.
NBC reports that Zampella was killed Sunday afternoon in a single-car crash on the Angeles Crest Highway in the San Gabriel Mountains, Southern California. According to the California Highway Patrol, a 2026 Ferrari 296 GTS veered off the road and hit a concrete barrier.
Zampella, who was driving, was trapped in the ensuing car fire and died at the scene. An unnamed passenger died at a hospital.
Zampella was born on October 1, 1970, and started his career in graphic design and digital video in the 1990s.
From 1999 to 2002, he worked at 2015 Inc. and was a lead designer for the popular war game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
In 2003 he co-founded studio Infinity Ward with fellow developers Grant Collier and Jason West. They developed a rival to the Medal of Honor series, which became known as Call of Duty and launched in 2003. The same year, Infinity Ward became a subsidiary of Activision.
Over the next two decades, the Call of Duty sold over 500 million copies and generated about $30 billion in revenue. It has been declared by Guinness World Records to be the best-selling first-person shooter game series of all time.
Zampella and West were fired by Activision not long after the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. They sued for wrongful termination and were eventually awarded a payout believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
In April 2010, Zampella and West founded a new games studio, Respawn Entertainment.
Respawn was bought by video game giant Electronic Arts in 2017. They are best known for the video games such as Titanfall, Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
On X, video games journalist Geoff Keighley wrote: “Vince was an extraordinary person — a gamer at heart, but also a visionary executive with a rare ability to recognize talent and give people the freedom and confidence to create something truly great.
“Vince cared deeply about doing the right thing. And even while working inside large organizations, he consistently pushed to put players first — to prioritize the experience, the craft, and the people who played the games. He leaves behind an incredible legacy of work.”
