Vince Zampella, Name Of Obligation Co-Creator And Respawn Head, Has Died

Infinity Ward co-founder and Respawn Leisure head Vince Zampella has died in a deadly automotive crash, NBC4 Los Angeles stories. He was 55 years previous.

The crash was reported to have occurred yesterday, twenty first December 2025, in alongside Southern California’s Angeles Crest Freeway, at round 12:45pm native time.

Tributes have been pouring in on-line following this terrible information, with The Sport Awards host Geoff Keighley calling Zampella “a unprecedented particular person” and former Xbox operations supervisor Eric Neustadter stating “it was all the time a pleasure” to work with him.

In a press release supplied to Kotaku, EA has stated “That is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s household, his family members, and all these touched by his work.”

“Vince’s affect on the online game business was profound and far-reaching. A pal, colleague, chief and visionary creator, his work helped form trendy interactive leisure and impressed tens of millions of gamers and builders around the globe. His legacy will proceed to form how video games are made and the way gamers join for generations to come back.”

Zampella has been working within the online game business because the late ’90s, beginning off answering telephones and testing video games at a neighborhood sport firm the place he lived. He then went to work for GameTek, Atari, and Panasonic Interactive Media, amongst different firms. Famously, Zampella was the lead designer on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and labored on the franchise from 1999 to 2002.

In 2002, together with Jason West and Grant Collier, Zampella based Infinity Ward in and commenced growing the now-seminal Name of Obligation franchise, with Fashionable Warfare among the many many video games to obtain Nintendo console ports.

Following Fashionable Warfare 2’s launch, Zampella and West have been fired from Activision (who owns Infinity Ward) and the 2 sued the corporate for wrongful termination. On the identical time, they shaped Respawn Leisure and partnered with EA. West would depart in 2013, with Zampella staying on as head of the corporate.

The studio is behind a few of the greatest franchises and titles on trendy consoles together with Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi, and Apex Legends. Zampella was additionally accountable for the LA department of DICE (now often called Ripple Impact Studios) and was head of the Battlefield franchise.

We ship our ideas to Zampella’s household and associates throughout this extremely troublesome time.