Here’s a new one: Ubisoft has sent out a press release announcing that it’s upcoming shooter, Far Cry 4, has just set the Guinness World Record for “highest” console gameplay ever.
Confused to what exactly it entails? It literally means “highest” in terms of height. According to the Ubisoft, contest winner Will Cruz played Far Cry 4 at 18,569 above sea level.
Gaming has just reached the summit. Ubisoft® secured the Guinness World Record for Highest Altitude Videogame Console Session after leading a successful expedition earlier this month to play Far Cry 4 in the Everest Himalayas, at an elevation of 18,569 feet (5,660 meters). Ubisoft set the record with William Cruz, a 23-year-old Provo, Utah native selected as part of a nationwide contest to be one of the first to play Far Cry 4 in advance of its November 18 release date.
Cruz was selected this summer as part of Ubisoft’s Quest for Everest: The Gaming Journey of a Lifetime, an online contest that identified the ultimate Far Cry gamer, and flew him halfway around the globe to see firsthand the real-world inspiration behind the Himalayan-set Far Cry 4. Cruz, who had never traveled outside of the United States before, filed for his first passport as part of the trip, visited Kathmandu, Nepal; Khumjung Monastery; the Khumbu Glacier; and the Ubisoft Base Camp at Mt. Everest. The hiking enthusiast was familiar with the mountains of Utah but had never come face-to-face with the ridgelines of the Everest Himalayas, home to the world’s highest mountain peaks.
Cruz hiked to the summit of Kala Patthar, one of the Himalayan Mountains set at the base of Mt. Everest in Nepal, with a support team of 15 people, including sherpas, a video crew and a train of yaks that helped carry the television, portable generator and gaming equipment necessary to set the record. On October 11, Cruz played Far Cry 4 on a gaming console for 79 minutes – from 4:38pm local Nepal time until 5:57pm, dealing with wind gusts of up to 25mph, temperatures that dropped from 26 to 17 degrees F, and the hazards of reduced oxygen where the air pressure is only half that of sea level.
One can only imagine what sort of record publishers will think of next for publicity, but I’m willing to bet it will be even crazier than this.
