Qualcomm to sponsor a marathon gaming session at E3

Qualcomm wants gamers to know that it’s serious about them. That’s why the mobile chip maker is planning a record-breaking event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) game trade show in June.

The company will work with the Guinness Book of World Records to hold its Snapdragon Gaming World Record Challenge at its booth outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 5 to 6 during E3. Fifty players will compete for the record of the longest video game marathon session on a tablet.

The players will use Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablets supplied by AT&T and try to be the last one standing at the end of 26 hours. The tablets use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, which are in use in more than 370 mobile devices. Some 400 Snapdragon designs are in development, including 35 tablets. And Qualcomm’s research shows that 60 percent of consumers use tablets and smartphones to play games.

“We want to raise the profile of Snapdragon,” said Michelle Li, senior director of marketing at Qualcomm. “Our focus is raising awareness for our processors in mobile gaming.”

The games that will be used in the competition will come from Gameloft, Halfbrick, Sega, Glu, Namco and Com2Us.

Players (California residents who are 18 and older) can register to participate at the Snapdragon site (linked above) until May 10. One hundred and twenty randomly selected entrants will participate in a qualifying round on May 22 at the Lexington Social House in Hollywood. After that, the top 50 will be selected to play in a tournament at E3. The grand prize is $20,000 and the full slate of prizes add up to $50,000. The contest starts at  2 p.m. June 5 and goes through 7 p.m. June 6.