Respawn co-founder, Call of Duty creator, and Battlefield series head Vince Zampella dies at 55

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Respawn co-founder, Call of Duty creator, and Battlefield series head Vince Zampella dies at 55 News By Jordan Gerblick published 22 December 2025

The FPS veteran died in a car crash Sunday afternoon

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Respawn co-founder and Battlefield series lead Vince Zampella, who was instrumental in the creation of the Call of Duty game franchise, has died.

Per NBC Los Angeles, Zampella was killed in a single-car crash north of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, December 21. The driver of the vehicle died on the scene, while the passenger later died in the hospital, though it isn't clear which was Zampella. Details have yet to emerge confirming the exact cause of the crash. The veteran video game developer was 55.

Zampella was a giant in the industry, and it's hard to overstate his impact not only in the first-person shooter genre, but video games as a whole. His career in games began in the '90s, when he worked at Atari to help it establish itself in the PC space. He also worked at 2015, Inc. from 1999 to 2002, during which he served as lead designer on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

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In 2003, Zampella and Jason West co-created the Call of Duty franchise at Infinity Ward, ironically as a competitor to Medal of Honor. The pair were fired from Infinity Ward in 2010, after which they founded Respawn Entertainment, the studio known for games like Titanfall and Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. EA acquired Respawn in 2017, and in 2021, Zampella became Head of Battlefield under EA's umbrella. Zampella also remained CEO of Respawn until his untimely death.

GamesRadar+ has reached out to Respawn and EA for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

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After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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