Head of Xbox Phil Spencer is addicted to playing ‘Vampire Survivors’.
The action rougelike shoot 'em up game - developed and published by Luca Galante, also known as Poncle - has been dubbed as one of the most addictive games of 2022 thanks to its survival gameplay.
It’s so addictive that even the CEO of Microsoft Gaming Spencer can’t stop playing.
Third-party website TrueAchievements revealed Spencer's stats which showed he logged in a whopping 641 hours on his Xbox One throughout the entire year. The stats showed that not only did Spencer earn 480 achievements and reach a game score of 9,720 but that out of all 53 games he played this year, ‘Vampire Survivors’ clocked in the most hours, with 223 hours worth of game time.
Spencer shared on Twitter: "Thanks to everyone who joined me in playing in 2022, lots of great co-op sessions throughout the year.
"And yeah, I do like Vampire Survivors, need to get those final achievements done."
The indie game was initially released on early access on December 17 last year. It wasn’t until early 2022 that the game had truly taken off. Since gaining huge popularity its earned many awards such as the Best Breakthrough award at the 2022 Golden Joysticks awards as a nomination for Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards 2022.
Poncle previously spoke about the shock success of his game and said he never really had a true vision of the rogue shooter at the time as it was loosely based on ‘Magic Survival’.
He said: "I've always been making games in my spare time, basically, and was looking for a job at the time. And because I was playing 'Magic Survival' I thought to try and make my version. And so just came up with a prototype that played, you know, exactly like 'Magic Survival'. And then I was done with it, honestly!"
It wasn’t until he looked back at an old asset pack he purchased a while back that he got the idea to replace the prototype’s with vampires and ghouls and fell in love with the visuals and his game.
He added: "And so from then on, I just started to build the game, piece by piece: I didn't have a vision.
"I just put elements in to try and make things fun."