„It's an unimaginable loss.” Gaming industry reacts to the death of Vince Zampella, one of the fathers of modern first-person shooters
EA DICE, Infinity Ward, and Respawn Entertainment are not the only developers mourning the sudden death of Vince Zampella, along with fans of the CoD and BF series.
The gaming community and former colleagues are mourning the tragic loss of Vince Zampella, the founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment.
Yesterday's news about the terrible car accident shocked everyone and left two teams from Electronic Arts, EA DICE and Respawn Entertainment, without their leader. Zampella was also the founder of Infinity Ward and thus one of the fathers of the success of the Call of Duty series. Over the years, he contributed to the creation of games and series such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi, Apex Legends, and finally Battlefield 6 (which, despite recent issues, turned out to be a big success).
It's no surprise that the gaming community started sharing posts to honor the memory of the person who passed away. Of course, Electronic Arts and its studios Respawn Entertainment and EA DICE published their statements, as did the creators of Call of Duty (including the teams at Infinity Ward and Treyarch), John Romero, Rebecca Ford (Warframe), Geoff Keighley, Markus "Notch" Persson, and many other creators, publishers, and journalists.
Here are the statements from the Battlefield team...
We are heartbroken by the loss of Vince Zampella, a creative leader whose work shaped generations of players and helped define what modern shooters and action games could be.
Across a remarkable career, Vince played a foundational role in franchises including Call of Duty, Titanfall, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series. During his time guiding Battlefield, he led with care and purpose, always grounding decisions in what mattered most to the community and the long-term future of the franchise.
While his impact reached far beyond any one game or studio, we will remember Vince for how he showed up every day, trusting his teams, encouraging bold ideas, and believing in Battlefield and the people building it.
We are deeply grateful for his leadership, his generosity, and the care he brought to everything he touched, and we will carry that forward with us.
… Respawn Entertainment, …
We're heartbroken by the passing of our founder and dear friend Vince Zampella.
Vince was a titan and legend of this industry, a visionary leader and a force who shaped teams and games like Call of Duty, Titanfall, Apex Legends, the Star Wars Jedi series and Battlefield for our community in ways that will be felt for generations.
His impact reached far beyond any one game or studio. We will remember Vince for how he showed up every day, trusting his teams, encouraging bold ideas, and believing in Respawn & Battlefield. Most importantly, he championed what he believed was right for the people behind those studios and our players because it mattered.
We will miss him greatly.
Our hearts are with his family, friends, and all who love him.
... and Infinity Ward:
Rest in peace Vince.
As one of the founders of Infinity Ward and Call of Duty, you will always have a special place in our history.
Your legacy of creating iconic, lasting entertainment is immeasurable.
Our deepest condolences to Vince’s family and loved ones upon this terrible tragedy.
A bunch of regular folks and some bigger names also shared their condolences and memories. Some people are wondering who will now take over the stewardship of Battlefield and other EA brands and how this will affect the future of these series. They're also bummed out that this isn't the first well-known developer the industry has lost this year (even if you don't count voice actors). In 2025, among those who passed away were Tomonobu Itagaki, Bill Petras, Jim Curry, Viktor Antonov, Rebecca Heineman, and Tim Letourneau.
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Author: Jacob Blazewicz
Graduated with a master's degree in Polish Studies from the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this very subject. Started his adventure with gamepressure.com in 2015, writing in the Newsroom and later also in the film and technology sections (also contributed to the Encyclopedia). Interested in video games (and not only video games) for years. He began with platform games and, to this day, remains a big fan of them (including Metroidvania). Also shows interest in card games (including paper), fighting games, soulslikes, and basically everything about games as such. Marvels at pixelated characters from games dating back to the time of the Game Boy (if not older).
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