Vince Zampella, head of the Battlefield franchise and co-founder of Respawn Entertainment, has passed away as the result of a car crash at the age of 55. The leading figure of a studio behind one of the most successful FPS series of all time, Zampella leaves behind three children, along with a legacy that includes the Battlefield series and many other games.
Zampella started his career in the 1990s, testing unreleased games and fielding phone calls for a small, independent development studio. He later went on to work in graphic design at Florida-based studio GameTek, and his career led him to roles in a number of different prominent companies, including classic developers like Atari, Panasonic, and SegaSoft.
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Respawn Entertainment Co-Founder Vince Zampella Passes Away at 55
According to a report from NBC Los Angeles, Zampella was identified as the driver in a single-vehicle crash at approximately 12:45 pm on December 21, 2025, on a highway running through the San Gabriel Mountains. The report from the California Highway Patrol shows that the vehicle went off the road, striking a concrete barrier, resulting in the single passenger being ejected, while Zampella was trapped inside the vehicle, which caught fire. Information has not been released regarding why the vehicle went off the road, but law enforcement reports confirm that Zampella died at the scene and the unidentified passenger was later declared dead at a hospital. Many fellow figures from the video game industry have been shocked by Zampella’s death and have publicly expressed their sympathy for the family, including longtime The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley.
Some of Zampella’s biggest accomplishments in the industry came during his time working on games in the Call of Duty franchise, which came to life as a result of some of his previous work. Around the turn of the century, Zampella was working for 2015 Inc. on the Medal of Honor series. Along with Grant Collier and Jason West, he founded Infinity Ward in May 2022, and not long afterward, the studio was acquired by Activision. The following year, Call of Duty was released as Infinity Ward’s first game. While he was involved in the development of multiple projects with the franchise before his departure from Activision in early 2010, he left an extra special mark on the first two games in the series, which bear his name as producer.
Following that departure, Zampella and West went on to found Respawn Entertainment. West left after just about three years with that company, leaving Zampella alone at the top of its leadership. While no games were released during that three-year timeframe, the development studio went on to see success with some classic hits, including battle royale hero shooter Apex Legends and robust action-adventure games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Respawn’s original claim to fame, though, was the Titanfall series, and while that IP has now lain dormant for close to a decade, there are persistent rumors that Titanfall 3 could be coming in 2026.
But modern-day fans will be most likely to see the mark that Zampella has left on the Battlefield series. Since 2021, Zampella had been working as the head of the Battlefield franchise. Expressing his opinion that the last game release before his appointment, Battlefield 2042, had veered too far off course from what has made the series so beloved by its fan base, Zampella still oversaw the creation of multiple post-launch additions to that game. However, his biggest impact on the series wouldn’t be felt until October 2025. Battlefield 6 has dominated sales charts under Zampella’s leadership, with Steam Charts registering an all-time peak of more than 656,000 players during its release month. It also picked up a total of three nominations at The Game Awards 2025, including one for Best Action Game, and it managed to take home the trophy for Best Audio Design.
