Vince Zampella, who co-created the popular video game series Call of Duty, has died in a car crash in California, aged 55.
Zampella’s death was confirmed by Electronic Arts, which owns Respawn Entertainment, a game studio he co-founded.
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.
“This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work,” a spokesperson for Electronic Arts told the BBC.
Officials said the person on the vehicle’s 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.
“For unknown reasons, the vehicle veered off the roadway, struck a concrete barrier, and became fully engulfed,” the California Highway Patrol said 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 by events in World War II, the game has sold more than 500 million copies making owners Microsoft’s Activision one of the most profitable gaming companies. 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 Legends.
Journalist and Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, who wrote a book about the making of Titanfall, called Zampella a “dear friend” in a post on X and a “visionary executive” who “never wavered in his commitment to honesty and transparency”.
“While he created some of the most influential games of our time, I always felt he still had his greatest one ahead of him,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking that we’ll never get to play it.”
“He really cared about the player experience,” Keza MacDonald, the Guardian’s video games editor, told BBC Newshour.
“He cared about making games, he cared about how people felt when they played and that really came across whenever you spoke to him.”
YouTuber MrRoflWaffles, whose Call of Duty videos have amassed him more than 2.4 million subscribers, credited the developer for inspiring “a whole generation” with the franchise, including his own content.
“You talk about the Mount Rushmore of gaming – he’s absolutely staple on that list of people,” he told BBC Newsbeat.
In 2010, Zampella and West were fired from Activision, which publishes the Call of Duty games, and the pair were subsequently locked in a long dispute with the company which they settled out of court in 2012.
At Electronic Arts, Zampella worked on Battlefield 6, which is seen as a direct competitor to Call of Duty.
Infinity Ward, the American company that developed Call of Duty, said Zampella “will always have a special place in our history”.
“Your legacy of creating iconic, lasting entertainment is immeasurable,” the company said in a statement on X.
