Vince Zampella, Formative Designer of Call of Duty Games, Dies at 55

Mr. Zampella co-founded two game studios and also worked on the Medal of Honor, Titanfall and Battlefield franchises.

Vince Zampella, a key figure in the creation of Call of Duty, the best-selling video game franchise that has reproduced World War II battles, riffed on modern global conflicts and imagined the technology future soldiers will wield, has died. He was 55.

His death was confirmed by Electronic Arts, which owns Respawn Entertainment, the studio Mr. Zampella co-founded in 2010. It did not provide a cause.

“Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching,” Electronic Arts said in a statement on Monday. “A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world.”

Mr. Zampella was instrumental in the development of the most popular first-person military shooter games, including this year’s Battlefield 6, a Call of Duty competitor. He was the general manager of Respawn, which has produced the shooters Titanfall, in which players control giant robots, and Apex Legends, a sci-fi battle royale.

Among Mr. Zampella’s earliest video game credits was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002), which included missions to sabotage a German U-boat and to storm Omaha Beach on D-Day.

The game was made by 2015 Inc., where Mr. Zampella worked as a lead developer. Its success led Electronic Arts, which had contracted the studio, to desire similar titles created under its own umbrella. That left many developers on the outside looking in.

So in May 2002, Mr. Zampella, Jason West and Grant Collier founded Infinity Ward, hiring nearly two dozen people who had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

“There was some tensions at the studio — it was obvious at some point that people were going to walk away and we decided to all walk away together,” Mr. Zampella said in a 2016 interview with IGN, a video game and entertainment news site. “We had a good, cohesive team, and it just felt right for us to work together again.”

In October 2003, Infinity Ward released its debut game, Call of Duty, which dropped players into the roles of American, British and Russian soldiers amid the chaos of rumbling tanks and exploding grenades. Its code name was Medal of Honor Killer.

Activision, which had invested in Infinity Ward, fully acquired the studio and has published a new Call of Duty game every year since 2005, selling more than 500 million copies. (Other studios, including Treyarch, Sledgehammer and Raven, also develop Call of Duty games to keep up the relentless pace.)

The series moved beyond World War II for the first time in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), one of the most influential video games ever. The in-game progression of its popular multiplayer mode unlocked new perks and weapons, keeping players hooked and becoming an industry standard.

The game’s single-player campaign immersed players in a conflict involving an unnamed Middle Eastern country and ultranationalist Russians. One mission gave the player a sniper rifle and a ghillie suit near Chernobyl; another handed over control of a gunship’s weapons and a black-and-white infrared screen showing the targets down below.

“You kind of get that feeling like you’re playing God, but you realize, Hey those are human beings down there,” said Mr. Zampella, who was Infinity Ward’s chief executive.

Mr. Zampella briefly attended Broward Community College in Florida before entering the video game industry at GameTek, working in production and quality assurance for games like Wheel of Fortune, Brutal: Paws of Fury and Cyberbykes: Shadow Racer VR.

He then joined Atari, helping to start its PC division and working on NBA Jam and Supercross 3D for Atari Jaguar; Panasonic Interactive Media, working as a producer on the real-time strategy game Baldies; and SegaSoft, contributing to the third-person shooter Vigilance.

Information on Mr. Zampella’s survivors was not immediately available.

A year after the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), which made more than $1 billion, Activision fired Mr. Zampella and Mr. West for what it called insubordination.

Mr. Zampella and Mr. West sued Activision, alleging that they had been fired because the company wanted to avoid paying them $36 million in bonuses and royalties. Activision filed a countersuit, arguing that the men had been trying to damage the company after being lured by Electronic Arts.

“After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid,” Mr. Zampella said in a statement at the time.

A day before the case went to trial, the parties announced a settlement.

In a social media post on Monday, Respawn called Mr. Zampella “a visionary leader” who “showed up every day, trusting his teams, encouraging bold ideas.” Infinity Ward said on social media that his “legacy of creating iconic, lasting entertainment is immeasurable.”

Mr. Zampella was on the board of directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, a nonprofit that promotes the video game industry and hosts an annual awards ceremony. Reflecting on the success of the Call of Duty franchise in the 2016 interview, he said he was awed by its place in culture, earning mentions in TV shows and movies.

“You have that dream of the game being popular,” he said of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, “but I don’t think you’re ever ready for that level of success.”

Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

Related Content