Zampella’s early career in games saw stints at GameTek, Atari, Ripcord Games, and SegaSoft. He received widespread acclaim after co-designing, with Jason West, the 2002 FPS hit Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for 2015, Inc. and Electronic Arts. Inspired by Saving Private Ryan, the smash hit Allied Assault in turn inspired the console game Medal of Honor: Frontline, which debuted later in 2002. Zampella, West, and Grant Collier founded Infinity Ward that same year, staffed fully by members of the Allied Assault team. Together, they launched the original Call of Duty in 2003, and were subsequently bought by Activision.
Under Zampella and West, Call of Duty became one of the biggest series in games. Infinity Ward launched the Modern Warfare subseries in 2007, with that year’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare codifying the template the series would follow for years to come. The two ran the company until 2010. Increasing tensions with Activision resulted in Zampella and West being fired that March, and they promptly launched Respawn Entertainment in April 2010, again bringing many of their coworkers from their previous studio with them.
Zampella remained at Respawn when West left in 2013, and served as its CEO until his death. During that tenure Respawn developed the multiplayer-focused Titanfall, Titanfall 2 (one of the most critically acclaimed shooters ever), and the spinoff title Apex Legends, and diversified outside of first-person shooters with the popular souls-like action games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Respawn was purchased by its publishing partner Electronic Arts in 2017, and remains a part of that company.
In 2020, Zampella became the head of a second game studio, the Los Angeles-based wing of the Swedish studio DICE. DICE is known for the Battlefield series, which Zampella oversaw starting in 2021. DICE LA was renamed to Ripple Effect Studios that year, and assisted in the development of Battlefield 6, the best-selling game of 2025 in America.
