Nintendo, Activision, Red Octane, Bethesda, Blizzard & Microsoft make their way into the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamers Edition. On the heels of February’s launch of the annual Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer’s Edition, representatives were on hand at the E3 Expo this week to honor gaming publishers with brand new records.Guinness World Record recipients included Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Wii Sports, who received the record for the Best Selling Video Game with sales of 45.7 million to date.
Major Nelson and Mark Whitten from XBOX LIVE received the award for the Most Popular Online Console Gaming Service during Monday night’s Microsoft party. Xbox Live serves 20 million active subscribers to date, representing 67% of the total install base as of May 2009.
Blizzard Entertainment’s Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams accepted the records for World of Warcraft for the Most Popular MMORPG with a total of 11.6 million subscribers and Starcraft for being the Best Selling Strategy Game for a PC, selling 9.5 million copies worldwide.
Bethesda Softworks’ Lead Designer Todd Howard was awarded with the record for the Fastest-selling Multi Platform RPG after Fallout 3 sold over 4.7 million copies in its first week on sale from October 28th to November 4th 2008.
The entire Infinity Ward team were officially presented with the record for the Most Played Online Video Game as Call of Duty 4 has an excess of 15 million minutes played daily and the up and coming US band The Dares performed the First concert to Take Place Simultaneously in the Real and Virtual Worlds in SOE’s new massively multiplayer game Free Realms
In addition Charles and Kai Huang of Red Octane received the accolade for the Best-selling Rhythm Game Series for Guitar Hero’s sales of in excess of 25 million copies.
An honorable mention goes out to Steve Wiebe who unsuccessfully tried to win back his Donkey Kong crown from Billy Mitchell. Guinness World Records and Twin Galaxies were on hand to witness the potential new record. Wiebe’s final score of 989, 400 points fell short of the 1,050,200 score achieved by Mitchell in 2007.
All of the publishers validated at this year’s show will make their mark on history and will be featured in the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamers Edition which will launch early next year. The book itself contains a comprehensive guide to gaming and will feature the latest gaming records, the history behind gaming, and interviews with key figures in the industry.
About Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records is the universally recognized authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the annual Guinness World Records book is published in more than 100 countries and 25 languages and is one of the highest-selling books under copyright of all time with more than 3 million copies sold annually across the globe. Guinness World Records celebrated its 50th anniversary edition in 2004, a year after the sale of its 100 millionth copy. Guinness World Records also annually publishes the Gamer’s Edition; a records book devoted solely to the world of computer gaming and high score record achievements. The Guinness World Records website (www.guinnessworldrecords.com) receives more than 11 million visitors a year. Guinness World Records is part of the Jim Pattison Group, one of Canada’s largest privately owned companies which is a conglomerate of interests, including advertising, broadcasting, grocery stores and automotive retailing.