Call of Duty creator and current Battlefield 6 head Vince Zampella says "The only reason that CoD exists is because EA were d**ks"

Battlefield franchise and Call of Duty creator Vince Zampella has said that the series only exists thanks to his experience working at EA.

When it comes to FPS games, Vince Zampella is one of the names that has become legendary in the genre, having worked on the big three cinematic military shooters, first on Medal of Honor, before founding Infinity Ward and making Call of Duty, and now he leads the Battlefield series as Battlefield 6 releases. And more importantly than all of those combined – founding Respawn and making Titanfall 2 (and the Star Wars Jedi games, those aren't shooters, but still grand).

Speaking to GQ, Zampella explained that without his time at EA working on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Call of Duty may never have happened. Following Allied Assault, a number of developers on the team left to found Infinitry Ward, "The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were dicks," Zampella – who has been working EA since 2010 – said.

Part of Battlefield 6's positive fan reception has been just how much the game has harkened back to the good old days of this type of shooter. A back-to-basics approach with EA targeting the series peak of Battlefield 3, 4, and the Bad Company games, with ads targeting the millennials who were being called the most heinous things by five-year-olds in the lobby with the Limp Bizkits and Zac Efrons of the world.

Zampella recalls what things were like at the time, saying "When you're watching a random TV show like Family Guy or The Office, and they're talking about Call of Duty. It hits you, like, ‘Oh shit!" Adding that "it was a little surreal."

EA is apparently playing whack-a-mole as Battlefield 6 fans keep using the FPS game's new Portal mode to set up XP farms to bypass the sluggish progression grind.