A red Ferrari came out of a mountain tunnel and never made the next bend.
Vince Zampella, the influential game designer who co-created Call of Duty and later founded Respawn Entertainment, died Sunday after a single-car crash on Angeles Crest Highway north of Los Angeles. He was 55. Electronic Arts — Respawn’s parent company — confirmed his death and called his influence on the industry "profound and far-reaching." Officials say a passenger in the car also died.
What happened
California Highway Patrol investigators say the Ferrari veered off the roadway just after exiting a tunnel, struck a concrete barrier and became fully engulfed. A passenger was ejected and later died at a hospital; the driver was trapped in the burning vehicle and died at the scene, authorities said. Initial footage circulating online shows the sports car slamming into the barrier and bursting into flames.
The exact cause of the crash remains under investigation. The CHP has not released the passenger’s identity or a final determination of what caused the car to leave the road.
A short life, a long impact
Zampella’s name is woven into some of the biggest franchises in modern gaming. He helped found Infinity Ward and co-created the original Call of Duty in 2003; the franchise has since sold more than 500 million copies worldwide and grown into a multimedia property with a live-action film in production. After leaving Infinity Ward, Zampella co-founded Respawn in 2010, the studio behind Titanfall, Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi games. Respawn was acquired by EA in 2017.
At EA he also lent his experience to work on titles that compete directly with Call of Duty — including recent efforts on Battlefield — during a period when the first-person shooter landscape was reshaping itself. For readers tracking that rivalry, recent changes to Battlefield 6 show how developers continue to iterate on the genre Zampella helped define.
Reaction from the industry
Statements poured in from studios and figures who knew him or admired his work. EA called the loss "unimaginable" and said Zampella was a friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator. Geoff Keighley, the journalist and Game Awards host, described him as a "visionary executive" and expressed shock that a developer who always seemed to have another great idea ahead of him was taken so suddenly.
Infinity Ward acknowledged that Zampella "will always have a special place in our history." Players and content creators online — from streamers to long-time fans of the series — reacted with grief and remembered the ways his games shaped their play and careers. The ongoing cultural presence of Call of Duty can be seen in recent platform moves too: for example, Black Ops 7 making its way onto subscription services underscores how the franchise remains a heavyweight in gaming distribution Black Ops 7 joins Xbox Game Pass.
A complicated career
Zampella’s path wasn’t without storms. In 2010 he and longtime collaborator Jason West were fired from Activision, triggering a high-profile legal battle that settled in 2012. Despite that rupture, their early work on Call of Duty set a template for cinematic, tightly designed first-person shooters.
Respawn later became a major force under Zampella’s leadership, blending blockbuster scope with studio culture that often emphasized player experience and storytelling — qualities many colleagues and critics pointed to when describing his legacy.
He leaves behind colleagues, players, and projects that will continue without him. Yet in an industry built on imagination and long development cycles, the suddenness of his death — on a winding real-world road rather than in code or on a studio whiteboard — felt especially stark.
His games will continue to be played; the man who helped shape them will not. And for many in gaming, that contrast between virtual battles and a real-life tragedy is the image that lingers.