Vince Zampella, noted for the Call of Duty series, and leadership at Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment, died in a motor vehicle accident this Sunday. NBC Los Angeles reports the developer was involved in a single car accident when the car veered off the road on the Angeles Crest highway, and did not survive his injuries.
Zampella’s career in the game industry spanned several decades, beginning with GameTek and Atari in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, he worked as the development director of Metal of Honor: Allied Assault and then produced or executive produced several of the early Call of Duty titles, marking his place in FPS (and indeed, all of game) history. In 2020, he co-founded Respawn Entertainment with Jason West. In 2021, he became the head of the Battlefield franchise.
Alongside Call of Duty and Battlefield, Zampella is known for the Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Star Wars: Jedi series. The well-regarded Battlefield 6 is one of the most recent titles he helped to ship.
