Guinness World Record-breaking video game collection has more than 11,000 titles

The Guinness World Record for the largest video game collection has found a new recipient: 31-year-old Buffalo resident Michael Thomasson's collection currently boasts more than 11,000 titles, earning him a two-page feature and due honors in the recently-released Guinness World Records 2014 Gamer's Edition.

Thomasson started his collection after receiving his first Colecovision game, Cosmic Avenger, at the age of 12. He sold off his collection twice — once in 1989 to raise funds for a Sega Genesis and again in 1998 to pay for his wedding — but has rebuilt it to what he estimates is a $700,000 to $800,000 treasure trove. According to Thomasson, he has averaged purchasing two games a day since the second sale, budgeting out $3,000 a year for games and trying to never pay full price for a title.

The Guinness book lists Thomasson's collection at 10,607 games, though since the count over a year ago his stash has grown to more than 11,000 games. The previous record holder, Richard Lecce, was awarded the title in 2010 for having 8,616 games.

Thomasson's collection includes the Xbox and PlayStation line of consoles and a Colecovision, as well as more little-known consoles like the Casio Loopy, which released only in Japan in 1995, and an Apple-created computed released the same year called the Pippin, which Thomasson noted is the "least fun of anything in [my] house."

"I have games on cartridge, laser disc," he said in a press statement. "I have VHS-based games, cassette-based games."

Thomasson designs his own games and teaches classes in game design, 2D animation and the history of video games at Buffalo's Canisius College, in addition to writing about games for various publications and raising his 5-year-old daughter, Anna. He says he hasn't played all the games in his collection and gets "three hours of playing in a week ... If I'm lucky."