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“What struck me most was his restlessness,” said Geoff Keighley yesterday in front of an audience on the DICE Summit 2026 keynote stage. “Nothing was ever quite good enough. That relentless hunger for excellence drove him to believe he could always make a better game, a better company, be a better man. Since his passing, I’ve thought a lot about what made Vince unique, what’s his superpower. Of course he knew how to build great teams, make great games, but inside massive companies built on process and politics, Vince was able to stay stubbornly human. He was direct, impatient with nonsense, and fiercely loyal to the people doing the work.”
Keighley was speaking of Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty franchise, co-founder of Infinity Ward, and co-founder of Respawn Entertainment, who tragically died this past December in a car accident at the age of 55.
Keighley opened a segment of the DICE Summit keynote talks dedicated to honoring Zampella’s legacy and memory, during which a number of other industry luminaries both took the stage as well as appeared in video messages discussing the impact he had on them personally, and the industry writ large.

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