Titanfall and Battlefield boss Vince Zampella says "Call of Duty exists because EA were d****"

In a candid interview that highlighted the tumultuous history of the Battlefield franchise, its current head, Vince Zampella, credits the birth of the massively successful Call of Duty series to a fallout with his former employer.

During a recent interview with GQ magazine, Zampella didn’t mince his words, stating, “The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were d****.” 

To put things into perspective, Vince Zampella had a dispute with EA, which forced him to leave the company and co-found Infinity Ward in 2002. His exit was spurred by conflicts during his time working on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a project inspired by Steven Spielberg’s vision. This project inadvertently led to the creation of Call of Duty, which has since sold over 500 million copies worldwide.

After departing EA following the dispute, he partnered with Activision to develop Call of Duty as a direct competitor to Medal of Honor, effectively shifting sides and the landscape of military shooters.

However, he later returned to EA in 2010, founding Respawn Entertainment, where he oversaw critically acclaimed titles like Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the battle royale outlier, Apex Legends, which has amassed hundreds of millions of players worldwide.

In 2021, EA appointed Zampella to lead the Battlefield franchise, tasking him with reviving the series after the underwhelming reception of Battlefield 2042, which was criticized for bugs, design choices, and sparse content at launch.

Zampella has lifted the Battlefield series from the ashes, given the resounding success of Battlefield 6. The game has amassed unprecedented success, selling over 6.5 million copies in its first few days and achieving an all-time concurrent player-peak of 747,000 on Steam alone, surpassing Apex Legends' all-time peak of 624,473, and overshadowing Battlefield 2042’s concurrent all-time peak of 107,376 players.

To put things into perspective, Battlefield 6’s release also dwarfed its open beta, which also performed strongly despite unbalanced weapons and animation bugs, with 521,079 concurrent players on Steam.

The Battlefield franchise, under Vince Zampella’s leadership, is back in form, essentially reestablishing itself as the dominant large-scale multiplayer shooter it was during the heyday of Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.