Battlefield franchise head and one of the creators of Call of Duty, Vince Zampella, stated in an interview with GQ that EA is to blame for the emergence of Call of Duty, and also recalled the company's management with a bad word.
Zampella worked on the Medal of Honor series from 1999 to 2002, where he was the lead designer of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. After that, he founded Infinity Ward, planning to continue working on Medal of Honor, but EA wanted to handle the franchise on its own, leaving Infinity Ward without funding, despite the work done.
The only reason Call of Duty exists is because EA acted like a******s.
At that moment, Infinity Ward was supported by Activision, which saw the potential of the team that created Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and the opportunity to compete with EA. Thus began the history of Call of Duty, which eventually became one of the most successful and expensive franchises in the history of the gaming industry.
After the release of Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, Zampella left Activision due to disputes over unpaid bonuses and royalties, which eventually resulted in a legal battle that lasted for many years. Later, Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment, which was responsible for the Titanfall dilogy and Apex Legends. Zampella eventually returned to EA when it absorbed Respawn, and steadily climbed the corporate ladder, eventually heading the Battlefield franchise.