{"id":467179,"date":"2025-12-23T18:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467179\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T18:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:54:18","slug":"call-of-duty-creator-vince-zampella-dies-at-55-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467179\/","title":{"rendered":"Call of Duty creator Vince Zampella dies at 55 : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766516056_490_\" data-template=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/4752x3114+0+0\/resize\/{width}\/quality\/{quality}\/format\/{format}\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F29%2F90%2F56ea569546fd9da548e722f4f6cb%2Fap25357044496297.jpg\" class=\"img\" alt=\"Three versions of Activision's Call Of Duty games are seen on sale at a Best Buy store in Mountain View, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2011. Vince Zampella, one of the creators behind the best-selling video games, has died at age 55.\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                Three versions of Activision&#8217;s Call Of Duty games are seen on sale at a Best Buy store in Mountain View, Calif., in 2011. Vince Zampella, one of the creators behind the best-selling video games, has died at age 55.<br \/>\n                <b class=\"credit\" aria-label=\"Image credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                    Paul Sakuma\/AP<\/p>\n<p>                <\/b><br \/>\n                <b class=\"hide-caption\"><b>hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n            <\/p>\n<p>            <b class=\"toggle-caption\"><b>toggle caption<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p>        Paul Sakuma\/AP<\/p>\n<p>Vince Zampella, one of the creators behind bestselling video games such as Call of Duty, has died. He was 55.<\/p>\n<p>Video game company Electronic Arts said Zampella died Sunday. The company did not disclose his cause of death.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"imagewrap\" id=\"featuredStackSquareImage279232816\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/alltechconsidered\/2014\/02\/23\/279232816\/a-father-plays-call-of-duty-with-his-son-watched-by-thousands\" data-metrics-ga4=\"{&quot;category&quot;:&quot;recirculation&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:&quot;story_recirculation_click&quot;,&quot;clickType&quot;:&quot;inset box&quot;,&quot;clickUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.npr.org\\\/sections\\\/alltechconsidered\\\/2014\\\/02\\\/23\\\/279232816\\\/a-father-plays-call-of-duty-with-his-son-watched-by-thousands&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/02\/18\/fsg3_sq-c53d3d026ebce1f341fd1d55a50daf65b040eaaa.jpg?s=100&amp;c=85&amp;f=jpeg\" data-original=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/02\/18\/fsg3_sq-c53d3d026ebce1f341fd1d55a50daf65b040eaaa.jpg?s=100&amp;c=100&amp;f=jpeg\" data-template=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/02\/18\/fsg3_sq-c53d3d026ebce1f341fd1d55a50daf65b040eaaa.jpg?s={width}&amp;c={quality}&amp;f={format}\" data-format=\"jpeg\" class=\"img lazyOnLoad\" alt=\"A Father Plays Call Of Duty With His Son, Watched By Thousands\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>         <\/p>\n<p>In 2010, Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment, a subsidiary of EA, and he also was the former chief executive of video game developer Infinity Ward, the studio behind the successful Call of Duty franchise.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Electronic Arts said in a statement on Monday that Zampella&#8217;s influence on the video game industry was &#8220;profound and far-reaching.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of Zampella&#8217;s crowning achievements was the creation of the Call of Duty franchise, which has sold more than half a billion games worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>The first-person shooter game debuted in 2003 as a World War II simulation and has sold over 500 million copies globally. Subsequent versions have delved into modern warfare and there is a live-action movie based on the game in production with Paramount Pictures.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Zampella was at the helm of the creation of the action adventure video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/04\/26\/1172159229\/star-wars-jedi-survivor-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Star Wars Jedi: Survivor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"imagewrap\" id=\"featuredStackSquareImagenx-s1-5627515\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/12\/02\/nx-s1-5627515\/metroid-prime-4-beyond-review\" data-metrics-ga4=\"{&quot;category&quot;:&quot;recirculation&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:&quot;story_recirculation_click&quot;,&quot;clickType&quot;:&quot;inset box&quot;,&quot;clickUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.npr.org\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/02\\\/nx-s1-5627515\\\/metroid-prime-4-beyond-review&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766516058_381_\" data-original=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/1589x1589+568+0\/resize\/100\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fec%2F20%2Fc83db5994268ac6fbbb1cf62b964%2Fswitch2-metroidprime4beyond-scrn22-cropped.jpg\" data-template=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/1589x1589+568+0\/resize\/{width}\/quality\/{quality}\/format\/{format}\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fec%2F20%2Fc83db5994268ac6fbbb1cf62b964%2Fswitch2-metroidprime4beyond-scrn22-cropped.jpg\" data-format=\"jpeg\" class=\"img lazyOnLoad\" alt=\"Samus Aran in all her Nintendo Switch 2 glory\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>         <\/p>\n<p>Geoff Keighley, video game journalist and co-creator of The Game Awards, said he was shocked to hear of Zampella&#8217;s sudden death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vince was an extraordinary person \u2014 a gamer at heart, but also a visionary executive with a rare ability to recognize talent and give people the freedom and confidence to create something truly great,&#8221; Keighley wrote on social media on Monday. &#8220;And while he created some of the most influential games of our time, I always felt he still had his greatest one ahead of him. It&#8217;s heartbreaking that we&#8217;ll never get to play it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three versions of Activision&#8217;s Call Of Duty games are seen on sale at a Best Buy store in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":467180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-467179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115770404224634325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}