IF YOU think you know someone who plays video games too often, think again. The record for the longest gaming session has been set at 109 hours.
Tony Desmet, Jesse Rebmann and Jeffrey Gammon from Belgium played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhoodfor more than 4½ days straight.
The new Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer's Edition,released today in Ireland and Britain, also reveals that the highest fee paid for a video game advert appearance was set by British actor Helen Mirren, who scooped almost €600,000 to promote Wii Fit in a series of television ads.
The 216-page book is the fifth Gamer's Edition,a subsidiary of the Guinness Book of World Recordspublished annually.
In recent years, Guinness research had suggested that gaming statistics were some of the most sought-after facts as the worldwide gaming community grew at remarkable speed.
Guinness promoted the launch of the book by displaying the world’s largest video game controller, a working replica of a Nintendo classic controller, in London’s Liverpool Street Station yesterday.
The controller was created by three engineering students from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, took five months of labour and cost approximately €4,800 to construct. In order to use it as a handheld device, you would need to be 51 metres tall.
While Guinness received more record-breaking claims from Ireland per capita than any other country last year, Ireland was notably absent from the 2012 Gamer's Edition.Guinness World Records public relations director Claire Burgess wants more Irish gamers to submit claims for next year's book of records.
“We know how popular gaming is in Ireland and encourage anyone who thinks they’re really good on a particular game to visit our website and let us know your best score,” she said.
TOP 10 GAMING RECORDS 2012
1. Longest Videogame Marathon
Tony Desmet, Jesse Rebmann and Jeffrey Gammon from Belgium played Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for a whopping 109 hours straight.
2. Highest Fee Paid for a Videogame Advert Appearance
British actor Helen Mirren wins hands down for reportedly being paid £500,000 (almost €600,000) to promote Wii Fit in a series of television advertisements.
3. Fastest Lap on Mario Kart
South London native Sami Cetin left others in the dust with his record-breaking time of 56.45 seconds.
4. Longest Gaming Session in Freefall
Jesse Moerkerk from the Netherlands played Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Nintendo Wii in mid-air in a wind tunnel for 18 minutes and 52 seconds.
5. First Woman to Win a Pro Street Fighter Event
Marie-Laure Norindr (20) from France, known to gamers by her alias “Kayane”, became the first women to win the Evolution Championship Series in 2010.
6. Most Expensive Virtual Property
SEE Digital Studios paid $6 million (more than €4.5 million) for the virtual planet Calypso in the online game Entropia Universe.
7. Most Prolific Dancing Game Scorer
Elizabeth Bolinger, otherwise known as “Kitty McScratch”, holds the no 1 position on the leader boards for more than 85 songs. To challenge herself, she likes to earn perfect scores backwards and blindfolded!
8. First Album to Debut in a Social Networking Game
In May 2011 infamously quirky pop star Lady Gaga arranged for GagaVille, a special modification of the popular Facebook game Farmville, in which players could unlock tracks from Born This Way before the album’s release.
9. Largest Competitive Pokémon Videogame Family
All five members of the Arnold family, hailing from a suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the US, competitively play Pokémon. Mum Linda, Dad Glenn, twins Ryan and David and daughter Grace all take part in international Pokémon videogame championships.
10. World’s Largest Videogame Controller
On display yesterday at London’s Liverpool Street rail station to promote the 2012 Gamer’s Edition book launch, the massive NES controller created by British engineering student Ben Allen weighs in at over 114kg.
The joypad stand is 30 times the size of a normal controller and requires at least two players to press or jump on the controls.