Call of Duty co-creator Vince Zampella dies in California...

What’s Happening

Real talk: The influential video game developer died after his car crashed and caught fire on a highway in Los Angeles.

Call of Duty co-creator Vince Zampella dies in California car crash 10 minutes ago Save Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu Save Variety via Vince Zampella in July 2025 Vince Zampella, who co-created the widely-popular video game series Call of Duty, has died in a car crash in California, aged 55. Zampellas death was locked in , which owns Respawn Entertainment, a game studio he co-founded. (we’re not making this up)

The influential video game developer was travelling in a Ferrari with another person, when it crashed and caught fire on a highway in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The Details

“This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vinces family, his loved ones, and all those touched ,” a spokesperson for Electronic Arts told the BBC. Officials dropped the person on the vehicles passenger seat was ejected while the driver remained trapped.

It is unclear if Zampella was driving the car and who the other person inside was. Both people inside the vehicle died.

Why This Matters

“For unknown reasons, the vehicle veered off the roadway, struck a concrete barrier, and became fully engulfed,” the California Highway Patrol dropped in a statement to the BBC. Zampella created Call of Duty with his long time collaborators Jason West and Grant Collier in 2003. Partly inspired World War II, the game has sold more than 500 million copies making owners Microsofts Activision one of the most profitable gaming companies.

This reflects broader trends we’re seeing in the business world right now.

Key Takeaways

• It has also spawned an upcoming live-action film.
• The Call of Duty franchise was not his only success.
• He was also behind other widely popular games including the Medal of Honor, Titanfall and Apex Legend.

The Bottom Line

He was also behind other widely popular games including the Medal of Honor, Titanfall and Apex Legend. “He fr cared about the player experience, he cared about making games, he cared about how people felt when they played and that fr came across whenever you spoke to him,” Keza MacDonald, the Guardians video games editor told BBC Newshour.

What do you think about all this?