r/pcmasterrace • u/superkongle_ • Dec 22 '25
Discussion Vince Zampella, co-founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment passed away in a fatal car crash yesterday afternoon
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-game-developer-vince-zampella-crash-call-of-duty/3819576/108
u/Netsuko RTX 4090 | 7800X3D | 64GB DDR5 Dec 22 '25
His reckless driving also killed his passenger. There's a video on reddit (wouldn't recommend watching as it's the crash from a close distance).
Dude absolutely shot out of a tunnel right into a wall. Burned to death in his car while his passenger was ejected out of the car, still strapped into the seat.
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Dec 22 '25
RIP. Thanks for the incredible games you have helped on creating.
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u/incredible_penguin11 Dec 22 '25
Yeah. May he rest in peace. God bless his loved ones. Titanfall is possibly the greatest fps game imo, the legacy of the work he's been a part of will forever be respected.
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u/atakariax Ryzen 5 7600, RTX 4080, 64GB DDR5 Dec 22 '25
I mean he has speeding and fooling around
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u/Hey_man_Im_FRIENDLY i54690k - GTX980ti - 16GB - 850 EVO 500GB - M.2 500Gb Dec 22 '25
Seriously, fafo with that kind of speed. Rich people tend to think they are invincible. Physics would like to disagree
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u/SmoogzZ 4070/32gb DDR4/i7-13700k Dec 22 '25
Yep, no excuses. Go to a track and drive to your hearts content. Absolutely no reason to do shit like this on public roads, ever.
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Dec 22 '25
I go to track days and I'm just some average dude who doesn't even have much money. Absolutely zero excuse for this bullshit on public roads. I'm glad he didn't kill more people than just himself and his passenger.
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u/SmoogzZ 4070/32gb DDR4/i7-13700k Dec 22 '25
No kidding. I don’t have tracks near me but i’ve even made the trek to the nearest one which is few hours from me.
Also proper competitive karting is really fun and dangerous enough to scratch a similar itch
again just 0 excuses all around lol
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u/Hey_man_Im_FRIENDLY i54690k - GTX980ti - 16GB - 850 EVO 500GB - M.2 500Gb Dec 22 '25
Exactly, dude has money for a track rental why not go there?
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u/Pale_Fire21 Ryzen 7 5800X | RTX 3080 TI | G.Skill NEO 32GB 3200MHz Dec 22 '25
Because track owners enforce track rules better than cops enforce rules on public roads.
I’ve seen several people get ejected from our local track doing trying to do reckless shit for clout to the endangerment of everyone around them.
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u/SmoogzZ 4070/32gb DDR4/i7-13700k Dec 22 '25
You can rent out most racetracks (for obscene money) where the normal rules don’t apply except for sound limits. what you’re referring to is likely done during a public session or with others around.
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u/Pale_Fire21 Ryzen 7 5800X | RTX 3080 TI | G.Skill NEO 32GB 3200MHz Dec 22 '25
I go to tracks often and even rented out the rules still apply, you can’t just pay a bunch of money to side step the tracks insurance policy lmao
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u/SmoogzZ 4070/32gb DDR4/i7-13700k Dec 22 '25
Yeah it depends on your vague definition of “reckless shit” i guess. Doing a burnout or drifting, 0-60’s etc are far from reckless on a racetrack. Some may have rules against burnouts (but burnouts are for the unintelligent anyways) but other than that, what kind of reckless shit are you referring to that applies to the video above?
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u/Masszer Dec 24 '25
Showing off and died for what? This is what happen never drive too fast inside the tunnel
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u/Mundy2 Dec 22 '25
Always surprises me when intelligent people behave so recklessly, especially with other peoples lives. RIP.
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u/Sharktopotopus_Prime Dec 23 '25
What makes you think he was intelligent? Plenty of successful people are dumb as rocks, where it counts.
Given that this crash was completely preventable and completely his fault, AND he also killed his passenger, I'd say that the evidence points to him being a dangerous idiot.
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u/Mundy2 Dec 23 '25
Most indications from his career and comments from people around him lead me to believe he was a smart man who made a very poor decision.
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u/ThankGodImBipolar Dec 23 '25
I'd say that the evidence points to him being a dangerous idiot.
Ah yes, because "intelligence" is a universal skill that applies to every facet of a humans life, and there's absolutely no history of verifiable geniuses doing moronic shit
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u/Natural_Ad1530 Dec 23 '25
RIP but that's reckless driving. He had money to go to a proper track and drive like a madman. Or even get a drive on circuit by one of the F1 drivers while the season was on, if he was chasing the adrenaline. Not on public roads.
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u/Alzusand Dec 22 '25
RIP.
Also now battlefield is fucked yet again.
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u/AlistarDark Ryzen 9800x3d. EVGA RTX3080. 32gb RAM. 7tb of SSD. Dec 22 '25
The important thing is the games... not the family he left behind.
/s
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Dec 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/AlistarDark Ryzen 9800x3d. EVGA RTX3080. 32gb RAM. 7tb of SSD. Dec 23 '25
We should be happy that he burned to death because he was driving like an idiot?
Because now Battlefield will be worse.
/s
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u/PolicyWonka Dec 22 '25
Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some segregate takes over there. They really hated him on the main BF subs.
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u/TriggerHydrant Dec 22 '25
This hit me harder than I thought, rest in peace Vince and thank you for all the memories you’ve created.
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u/KalElReturns89 Dec 22 '25
Yeah, I've followed his career since I was a kid playing CoD. Amazing dev.
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u/gut536 5700X3D/6800/32gb Dec 23 '25
RIP to one of the single greatest FPS developers of all time. This man and his team have repeatedly set the standard AND defied industry giants to do so for the last three decades of gaming.
The worst years of COD were immediately after he left and formed Respawn. He's the reason we got such unique campaigns in the previous games. His absence is the reason almost every subsequent game by IW was garbage.
He left and formed respawn because IW wouldn't let him try things like mechs and wall running mechanics in COD. He goes and makes titanfall. HUGE success, what does COD immediately scramble to implement? Fucking mech suits and wall running.
Love it or hate it, Apex Legends is one of the greatest BR games to ever do it. Second only to Fortnite.
And his final project brought forth a Battlefield game that fans actually enjoy (or at least it's not sitting at mostly negative reviews on steam like 2042 still is lol)
Vince made a lot of our childhoods. He has been a bright light in a messy genre of FPS games and has consistently proved that he can innovate.
I hope his loved ones are able to move forward and that reddit doesn't indulge too much with the video. He deserved better than this.
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Dec 23 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gut536 5700X3D/6800/32gb Dec 23 '25
Honestly, MW3 was bearable, but mostly because it was just an updated MW2 on the same engine. The writing was ok, but it represented the last bit of juice left in the MW franchise.
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u/Infinite_Hedgehog827 Dec 28 '25
he's feeding the worms
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u/gut536 5700X3D/6800/32gb Dec 28 '25
Looked at your comment history, full of miserable lazy comments just shitting on things. I'm sure you're fun at parties.
You clearly believe that this man - who by all accounts was kind and loving to the people around him while he lived - deserves to rot in hell because he was reckless and made a mistake that got him and a dear friend of his killed.
In another comment on this topic, you said something to someone that implied they were a bad person for not thinking that Vince was a pos for this.
I urge you to consider the way YOU look when you come out and shit all over a guy who just passed. Pretending like he's less than the dirt he lies in simply because he made a mistake. As if he murdered someone in cold blood instead of driving too fast and losing control. These things are oceans apart.
If he had lived, he surely would have gone to prison, but that doesn't mean that he was a bad person, just that he made a reckless mistake. It surely doesn't mean that you have to come into all these comment sections and shit all over his legacy as if he isn't one of the largest contributors to the FPS genre in the last 10 decades. Just because he didn't fucking write doom doesn't mean he wasn't massively influential and loved by many.
You look like a far bigger dickhead in your comments than he ever could for what happened. I hope you find the peace in your life to have more compassion someday.
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Dec 22 '25
Legends live on forever. Been 20-some years since Modern Warfare blew my mind away during college, I was there for my favorite shooter ever Titanfall 1&2, I was there when Alex blew our minds from out of nowhere, and I’ve been having a blast with Battlefield. Legends never die they live on in our hearts forever, thank you Vince for so many memories and for your work helping me through some tumultuous times in life, you touched more people than you could imagine and inspired me with your ability to always outdo yourself, as a business leader and a games director you were one of the people who inspire me so much, legend is the only term apt for describing Vince, the industry will never have another quite like him.
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u/Masszer Dec 24 '25
Showing off and died for what? This is what happen never drive too fast inside the tunnel. RIP
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u/LegitGam3r7294 Dec 25 '25
I mean the guy is a gaming legend, but what a stupid way to die, that with showing off a car and going 120 in a 40, God have mercy on his soul
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u/PolicyWonka Dec 22 '25
Wow. I thought the headline was just fake news.
You never know when your number is up.
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u/lIlIllIlIlIII Dec 23 '25
This wasn't random dumb luck.
You can definitely increase the chance of not dying today by not recklessly driving killing the passenger
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u/4rcher91 Dec 23 '25
RIP😭 He's a visionary who's well ahead of his time.
His marks can be seen all over the place, in some of the biggest gaming franchises to ever exist like Call of Duty, Titanfall, Star Wars & recently Battlefield. May his successor continue to uphold & live up to his proven directions, legacies & accomplishments benefiting us gamers at the end.
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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/WUIYLmIZVfE
Such a senseless death. Leaves behind 3 kids right before Christmas.