Vince Zampella, who co-created the widely-popular video game Call of Duty, has died in a single-vehicle Ferrari 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 car 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.
“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. “Both parties succumbed to their injuries.”
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 games including the Medal of Honor, Titanfall, and Apex Legend.
“He really cared about the player experience, he cared about making games, he cared about how people felt when they played and that really came across whenever you spoke to him,” Keza MacDonald, the Guardian’s video games editor told BBC Newshour.
