Call of Duty's Vince Zampella was a video games visionary

"Though best known for that series of blockbuster military shooters, Zampella touched a huge number of lives not only the hundreds of people who worked at the game development studios he led under Activision and EA, but the millions of people who played the games that bore his imprint. A lifelong gamer, Zampella had a Pong console as a child, then an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64."

"It was at a developer called 2015, Inc in Tulsa that Zampella had his first smash hit as lead designer. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was the third title in the acclaimed series of second world war shooters, which had been inspired by Saving Private Ryan and written in conjunction with Steven Spielberg. Zampella had envisioned a new type of shooter with an epic, cinematic sense of immersion. The game was a bestseller, acclaimed for its globetrotting narrative and taut, tense action"

"When publisher Electronic Arts made the decision to take the development of Medal of Honour in-house, Zampella and his colleague Jason West left, together with Grant Collier, and set up Infinity Ward in Los Angeles. There they created Call of Duty, a second world war shooter designed to exceed Medal of Honor's sense of epic drama indeed, its original development title had been Medal of Honor Killer."

Vince Zampella died in a car crash in Los Angeles at age 55. He co-created the Call of Duty series and led game studios at Activision and EA, influencing hundreds of developers and millions of players. He was a lifelong gamer who owned a Pong console, an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64 and favored Donkey Kong. His first industry job was at GameTek in Miami where he worked as producer, customer services and tester. At 2015, Inc he led Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a cinematic World War II shooter inspired by Saving Private Ryan and developed with Steven Spielberg, acclaimed for its immersion and Omaha Beach sequence. After EA moved Medal of Honor in-house, he and colleagues founded Infinity Ward and created Call of Duty.

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