310 million dollars – that’s how much rolled into it on November 10, 2009 late from Call of Duty publisher Activision from the United States and the United Kingdom. The new game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was instantly the best-selling entertainment product ever. A miracle in the hit-prone gaming industry – yet producer Vince Zampella was fired within a year. The reason was fought over in court for years.
A second miracle occurred in the aftermath. In an industry that rarely offers employees stability, many makers decided to do so Call of Duty had worked to follow Zampella to his new studio. Whether his Respawn Entertainment would succeed? They trusted Zampella.
Vince Zampella died last weekend at the age of 55 in a car accident near Los Angeles. This ends a 30-year career in which Zampella left an enormous mark on the gaming industry with a shooting game series Call of Duty as the biggest, but not the only, highlight. Series like Medal of Honor, Titanfall, Apex Legends and Star Wars series Star Wars Jedi found an eager audience who enjoyed Zampella’s innovation and sense of drama.
Zampella himself became fascinated by video games at an early age. As a child he played everything from board games to… Dungeons & Dragons, told it in 2021 Barrons. When he was given the opportunity to work for GameTek, which specialized in game versions of game shows, he didn’t hesitate. He then visited many major game studios until he ended up at 2015 Inc. in 1999, where he worked on the influential military shooting game series Medal of Honor.
However, the dream of own games beckoned. With partner Jason West, Zampella founded Infinity Ward in 2002. The first job: a ‘Medal of Honor killer’ for Activision. With World War II game Call of Duty (2003), Infinity Ward did not want to focus on an individual hero, but the cooperation of many soldiers and countries. The game also had to resemble a war movie. ‘CoD’ became a financial success and won many professional awards. Its cinematic action still leaves its mark on the gaming sector – for years everyone wanted ‘their own CoD’.
Various Call Of Duty games.
Image ASSOCIATED PRESS
Half a billion
The number of Call of Duty games sold is now estimated at half a billion copies, thus The Washington Post. But Zampella himself could only enjoy it for seven years: in 2010 he had to leave Activision. He founded Respawn Entertainment and turned to EA again. He made, among other things, for them Titanfalla shooting game about large robot suits that remains beloved for its innovative emphasis on fluid verticals movements – flying, climbing, jumping.
He helped EA build a Fortnite competitor with Apex Legends and surprised gamers when Respawn announced in 2016 that it was working on a Star Wars game – something completely different from the shooting games that Zampella had become synonymous with. Zampella, a big Star Wars fan, was the driving force behind the project, he said in an interview with game site IGN. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combined a niche formula – very difficult games with sword fighting – with all the elements of a strong Star Wars story. It turned out to be exactly what Star Wars fans were hoping for.
In his last years, Zampella returned to the genre that had made him great. He knew them for Electronic Arts Call of Dutylike Battlefieldseries back on track; Battlefield 6 became one of the biggest gaming successes of this year.
Game makers online praise the man himself, who quietly did his best in the background to help colleagues. “When I was forced to become independent myself, Vince took the time to listen to me and support me,” said gaming legend Hideo Kojima on the platform X on Tuesday. Former employees such as Alex Frostwolf mentioned his talent for leadership, his “ability to stand up for what he believed in” and his love for his people.
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