More than two decades after he helped create two of the biggest first-person shooter franchises in history, Vince Zampella isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.
In a recent interview with IGN, the Battlefield 6 director looked back on the unlikely chain of events that gave birth to Call of Duty — and didn’t mince words when recalling his early years at Electronic Arts.
“The only reason Call of Duty exists is because EA were such jerks!” Zampella said with a laugh, though the sting behind the comment was unmistakable.
From Medal of Honor to the Birth of a Titan
In the late 1990s, Zampella was part of EA’s Medal of Honor team, serving as lead designer on the 2002 classic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It was a defining entry in the WWII shooter era — cinematic, intense, and groundbreaking for its time.

But behind the scenes, tensions were building. Creative differences and corporate disputes between Zampella’s team and EA management eventually boiled over. Frustrated but determined, he walked away and founded Infinity Ward in 2002 — a studio that would soon reshape the FPS landscape forever.
The mission was clear: create a game that could outshine Medal of Honor. The result was Call of Duty, a title that not only dethroned EA’s shooter but went on to define a generation of multiplayer gaming.
“We just wanted to make something better — something faster, more immersive, more personal,” Zampella once said in an earlier interview. “That’s how it all started.”
The Fallout — and a Full Circle Return

In 2009, Zampella’s story took another sharp turn. Following Modern Warfare 2’s success, he and co-founder Jason West parted ways with Activision after a bitter legal battle over unpaid bonuses and royalties. The feud dominated industry headlines for years, but it also gave birth to something new.
Zampella went on to co-found Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Titanfall and the mega-hit Apex Legends. Ironically, Respawn partnered with — and was later acquired by EA, the same publisher he once swore off.
Now, more than 20 years after his first fallout with EA, Zampella is back — this time as the man steering the company’s flagship shooter series. Under his leadership, Battlefield 6 has become one of the most played and best-received entries in years, even breaking into Steam’s top charts shortly after launch.
It’s a redemption arc that feels almost poetic: the man whose frustration with EA birthed Call of Duty has now returned to save Battlefield.
“I Guess We’ve All Grown Up — a Little”
Zampella’s tone these days is more reflective than bitter. He’s quick to joke about the past but equally eager to move forward.
“Things were different back then,” he said. “We were just a bunch of passionate developers trying to prove something. I guess, in the end, competition made everyone better.”
For players, that competition has defined decades of shooter history — from Call of Duty: Allied Assault to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to Battlefield 6. And for Zampella, it’s proof that sometimes, the best revenge story in gaming isn’t about who wins the war — it’s about who keeps fighting.
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