The Man Running Battlefield Says Call of Duty Only Exists Because "EA Were Dicks"
Every once in a while, a developer gets so successful and so battle-hardened that they just stop giving a shit. It’s my favorite phase of any creative’s career. Vince Zampella, the guy currently steering the Battlefield ship for EA, just entered that phase with a glorious, unfiltered quote.
In a recent interview with GQ, Zampella, a man who has ping-ponged between EA and Activision more times than a pinball, laid out the very simple reason the world’s biggest shooter franchise was born. "The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were dicks."
I love it. No corporate doublespeak, no PR spin. Just the cold, hard, deliciously petty truth. The history between these two publishers and this one man is a twisted, incestuous loop that perfectly explains the state of the modern AAA shooter.
A History of Bad Blood
Let me walk you through this beautiful mess. Back in the day, from 1999 to 2002, Zampella was at EA working on the Medal of Honor series. He was the lead designer on the legendary Allied Assault, a game that basically wrote the book on cinematic World War II shooters.
After that success, Zampella and his team co-founded their own studio, Infinity Ward. The plan was to keep working on Medal of Honor, but EA, in a move that would prove to be monumentally stupid, decided to take the franchise in-house. Things went south fast. According to former Infinity Ward artists, the studio was left high and dry, with "unpaid milestones that were delivered and no finances to operate on."
The "Medal of Honor Killer"
Enter Activision. Seeing a team of absolute killers on the ropes, they swooped in. They weren't just offering a lifeline; they were offering a chance for revenge. Activision wanted a franchise that could topple EA's shooter dominance, and they funded Infinity Ward to create the "Medal of Honor killer."
That killer was called Call of Duty. The rest is history. The franchise became a behemoth, a multi-billion-dollar juggernaut that left Medal of Honor choking on its dust. It's a perfect, ironic story of how a corporate knife-fight accidentally created a cultural phenomenon.
The Empire Strikes Back (With Lawyers)
Of course, the story doesn't end there. Following the monumental success of 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, Zampella and Activision had their own spectacular falling out. A bitter legal war over unpaid bonuses dragged on for years, ending with Zampella getting a huge payout and leaving the company he helped build.
Sensing a pattern? Zampella leaves EA because of bad business, creates a monster hit, then leaves Activision because of bad business. It’s the circle of life in this industry.
The Prodigal Son Returns
This is where it gets truly poetic. After the Activision divorce, Zampella co-founded Respawn Entertainment. Who did he partner with for his new game, Titanfall? None other than Electronic Arts. EA eventually bought Respawn outright, and Zampella began climbing the corporate ladder he had kicked over two decades prior.
Now, in the ultimate twist, he’s the guy in charge of the entire Battlefield franchise, the series that has been Call of Duty's primary rival for years. He’s the one who helped turn the ship around after the disastrous launch of 2042 and delivered the wildly successful Battlefield 6. The man who created EA's greatest enemy is now leading the charge for EA's flagship shooter.
It's a beautiful, messy, and deeply cynical story that perfectly captures the absurdity of the AAA games industry. And it all started because, as Zampella so elegantly put it, "EA were dicks."