Vince Zampella, developer of Call of Duty and Battlefield has died
37 comments
·December 22, 2025ViktorRay
I remember playing the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 back in the day after I rented it from Blockbuster. That game was an incredible experience.
Thank you to Vince Zampella and everyone else who worked on that game for those memories.
Rest in peace
MDTHLN
Absolutely awful to hear.
His games were a significant part of my teenagehood, as I'm sure they were for many others. Thank you for all the memories Vince.
leshokunin
Very unfortunate. Thank you for the wonderful moments. You created so many.
toomuchtodo
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hamza_q_
Thanks for COD: MW2 (2009), Vince. The game of my childhood. Rest in Peace.
journal
"A passenger was ejected, and the driver died after being trapped in the burning vehicle"
toomuchtodo
2026 Ferrari 296 GTS
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-game-develope...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_296
(shared for context around vehicle power and dynamics likely leading or contributing to the event)
tsunamifury
[flagged]
watwut
The article is not describing that car as a "family priced". And you are not describing family car either, you are describing luxury car.
What does that have to do with inflation denial is a mystery.
dragonwriter
> Always funny to see how out of touch journalists describing a new 500k car as if it was priced like a family SUV (six figures, the running costs for most luxury SUVs)
Always funny to see HN commenters treat "most luxury SUVs" as an equivalent class to "family SUVs" while making fun of “out of touch journalists” supposedly equating dissimilar vehicle classes.
riazrizvi
I‘m in the habit of speeding, I think it’s closely tied to the mental stresses you push yourself into, in sedentary, intellectual work. Thankfully I no longer own a car/motorcycle, and have other physical outlets now, to better balance it all out. I’m only here now myself at 55 through luck.
switchbak
No, I don’t think that’s it. Almost everyone one I associate with does similar kinds of work, and I don’t see that same willingness to expose them and others to undue risk like that.
__turbobrew__
Not sure why you are being downvoted. Dude crashed his Ferrari.
lysace
Realistic racing sim games have taught me not to want a supercar for daily drives. Way too easy to f up.
Just one such example (1983):
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/10/business/corporate-triump...
>CORPORATE TRIUMPH, THEN DEATH IN A FERRARI
> The young president of a successful new computer company died Wednesday afternoon in a car crash in California's Silicon Valley, hours after his company had sold its stock to the public for the first time and he had become a multimillionaire.
bitwize
I was like whoa, he was on BOTH the tentpole military-simulator-aspirant FPS franchises? That's like George Lucas being called over to work on Star Trek.
The world lost a titan. No pun intended.
firesteelrain
Wow! So sad, what a terrible way to go.
tsunamifury
[flagged]
klardotsh
Nothing in TFA or the NBC article linked by TFA provides enough information to conclude reckless homicide. All that is confirmed is a car leaving a roadway, crashing, and catching fire. What's your source for concluding reckless homicide?
Polycryptus
There is video of the accident floating around. I recommend against going looking for it...
AlexandrB
None of the reporting even specifies who was driving.
null
owlninja
If this is up to date he seemed more of a McLaren person:
https://exclusivecarregistry.com/collection/zampella-collect...
thinkingtoilet
The article makes no mention of reckless driving. Perhaps you should wait for facts before making such statements.
tsunamifury
[flagged]
bhouston
A lot of high end cars get wrecked because (1) their owners want to drive them fast to test out what they paid for, and (2) their owners are not trained to drive high performance cars and (3) their owners drive them on public roads where there are a lot of hazards.
It isn't that different than the non-significant number of rich people that die in private aviation crashes (those that fly themselves, I think private jets are a lot safer.)
DennisP
Yep. I started looking into sports cars recently, and the general consensus among enthusiasts seems to be that for public roads, if you're not going to drive at reckless speeds then you'll have more fun driving a slow car fast than driving a fast car slow. Fun handling with modest horsepower is the way to go, you can have a great time without exceeding normal road speeds.
bayarearefugee
Sometimes it is (4) their owners let a friend drive the car and the friend is not remotely equipped to handle the car at the speeds involved.
Not saying that's what happened here (I haven't seen any reporting on who was driving vs who was the passenger) but it is at least part of the reason Paul Walker is dead.
Of course, the owners themselves even if they are skilled drivers, shouldn't be driving outside of legal limits on public roads.
If you have an exotic sports car worth half a million dollars and you want to go crazy with it then rent a track, you can afford it.
DennisP
And a track day can cost just a few hundred bucks. It's not like you have to rent a whole track just for yourself.
tsunamifury
The fact that you can’t tell the difference between a driver and a passengers responsibility is shocking to me.
junon
You've yet to provide a source for this. That's why the criticisms of your claims.
AlexandrB
Is there reporting that actually lists him as the driver? Because I can't find any.
gesis
The news report linked in the article has this to say:
> The driver, Zampella, was trapped in the ensuing car fire, the CHP said. He died at the scene and the passenger died at a hospital, authorities told NBC4 Investigates. Details about the passenger's identity were not immediately available.
switchbak
Provide a source and real evidence for your claim or STFU. This is extremely disrespectful to someone’s memory if they are not guilty of the things you flippantly accuse them of.
Titanfall 2 was spectacular, and BF6 is easily the best entry in the franchise in the past decade+. Apex Legends is great too.
RIP.