Vince Zampella, the person who co-created the well-known battle game “Call of Duty,” has passed away in a car crash. Gaming bigshot Electronic Arts confirmed the news on Monday, 23rd December. He was 55 years old.
According to a report by NBC4, the accident happened on Sunday, 22nd December, when Zampella was driving his Ferrari on a twisty mountain road north of Los Angeles, California.
The California Highway Patrol said the car went off the road for some unclear reason, slammed into a concrete barrier, and burst into flames. They didn’t name the two people who died, the driver and a passenger who got thrown out of the car. Both didn’t make it.
Eyewitnesses shared videos online showing the wrecked cherry-red Ferrari burning up on the mountain highway. Cops are still figuring out exactly was the reason behind the crash.
Call Of Duty creator Vince Lampella loses control of speeding Ferrari, dies in horrific fire in Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/b9ZUFb79mI
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 23, 2025
Zampella’s teams made some of the top-selling games ever, and he was a real pioneer in fast-paced military shooter games. This year, his “Battlefield 6” broke sales records for the series. He said back then, “We never take moments like this for granted,” even after years of big wins in the industry.
Call of Duty continues to be one of the most popular games in the world, and it has pulled in over 100 million players across its different versions in the last 20 years.
Apart from developing the popular “Call of Duty” series, Zampella’s company, Respawn Entertainment, is behind the release of “Titanfall,” “Apex Legends,” and the “Star Wars Jedi” series.
In the 1990s, he started out by designing games for the shooting genre. In 2002, he co-founded Infinity Ward, which dropped the name “Call of Duty” in 2003. Activision bought the studio later on.
Things got complicated, and he left Activision to found Respawn in 2010. Electronic Arts acquired it in 2017.
.
