Vince Zampella is a notorious developer when it comes to shooters. He has previously worked on Medal of Honor and is now responsible for Battlefield 6. More importantly, he is one of the founders of Infinity Ward, the development studio of Call of Duty. However, the founding nearly didn’t happen.
What is the reason that Call of Duty exists? Zampella is currently the lead developer at Battlefield 6 and spoke in an interview with the magazine GQ about the shooter. Although he now works for the competition, he has never forgotten his beginnings at CoD.
The only reason Call of Duty exists is that EA were dicks.
Zampella initially worked on Medal of Honor under EA at the developer “2015, Inc.”. However, there was a dispute with EA, which led Zampella to leave the studio in 2002 and found his own with Infinity Ward. Without this dispute, the founding would likely never have occurred – and thus Call of Duty.
Nonetheless, Zampella later returned to EA to supervise Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Apex Legends. Eventually, he even ended up with CoD’s competitor, Battlefield 6.
EA made a bad decision
What exactly was the dispute? Over time, EA decided to take over the development of Medal of Honor themselves. Justin Thomas, a designer on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, recalls that there were already problems during development (as noted on mcvuk.com):
For legal reasons, I would like to say that things did not go as planned. We were in a situation where no payments were made for delivered milestones and we had no financial resources for operations.
Consequently, part of the team decided to found Infinity Ward. Grant Collier, also a founder of Infinity Ward, had contacted all major publishers, and within a few days, Activision was the one who responded immediately with an offer. Thus, the pitch for Call of Duty was born.
If EA had left the development with the external studio, CoD would never have been born.
How’s it going currently? Call of Duty is currently gearing up for the release of Black Ops 7. The new title will be released on November 14, 2025, and has already announced to reduce SBMM at launch.
Battlefield 6, on the other hand, was released a few days ago. The title is well received by the community. However, there is also criticism, particularly regarding the user interface and the size of the maps: Battlefield 6 launches with over 36,000 positive reviews on Steam, but also notable criticism – Here’s what the community says
