Xbox Boss Phil Spencer: Gaming While Managing the Largest Videogame Acquisition in History

  • 01-03-2023 |
  • Isabella Clark

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is no stranger to ambitious gaming accomplishments. He recently took ten days of his life to obtain all of the achievements for Vampire Survivors, including the ones from its Legacy of the Moonspell DLC. This achievement display marked Spencer's ascension to the pantheon of top Vampire Survivors players and likely even proved him better than many others at playing video games. But, despite this extensive gaming feat, Spencer's still got another major task on his plate: the Activision acquisition. 

Currently, Spencer is awaiting the outcome of the hefty Activision acquisition, which is trudging through an interesting regulatory quagmire. Most recently, the UK Competition and Markets Authority suggested that Activision Blizzard should be broken up and the union organizing Activision's workers wrote to European regulators to urge them to give the acquisition the green light. In response, Microsoft is running around signing 10-year deals with other platforms in an effort to prove that it can be trusted to act responsibly. 

Despite the long and tedious process, it’s clear that Spencer is dedicated not just to his work but also to his gaming endeavors. After all, by December 2020, he had already managed to spend 233 hours in the game. And, if he didn’t take advantage of a pre-release version, it's impressive that he found the time to dedicate to Vampire Survivors between its November 10 release date and just before Christmas.

But Spencer isn't just any Vampire Survivors fan. In addition to obtaining the Victory Sword achievement, which is held by a mere 4.74% of Xbox players, he now also holds the EXTRA: Chaos Malachite achievement, the rarest one in the game and currently held by 1.87% of players. And, to make his feat even more noteworthy, he also made sure to use a variety of weapons such as garlic, a King Bible, Santa Water, and a magic wand in his successful run for the final achievement.

Without a doubt, Spencer's gaming commitment and skill are impressive, and his ability to balance the Activision acquisition and his gaming obsession is certainly remarkable. While the former is marked with long and often tedious regulatory processes, the latter is marked with the ultimate achievement for an S-Ranked Vampire Survivors player. Whether or not the Activision acquisition is successful, it's clear that Spencer has already had a major win in gaming.