If we had a "sad panda" costume, we'd put it on right now for this post. The GamesCom attempt to break the Guinness world record for "The Largest Gathering of Games Characters" failed this weekend -- but it wasn't an "epic fail." Joystiq spoke with Gaz Deaves, Guinness' video games records manager, who told us 311 cosplayers were present, which was 65 short of the record set at London MCM Expo on May 23 of this year.

Deaves explained that once the line was cleared, organizers didn't think it would be fair to keep the folks waiting while they went looking for more people on the show floor -- a good thing, considering the heat already caused our pity meter to go into overdrive for the folks hotboxing inside the Tetris blocks and full Yoshi costumes. The organizer's eleventh-hour change of venue from the South Hall entrance to a random location between two halls in the enormous complex probably didn't help costumed revelers attend the event either.

The next attempt to break the record will likely be London Games Festival or MCM Expo, which have applied the last two years, successfully breaking the record on both occasions. Deaves tells us, "However, the big competitor who has yet to apply is TGS. I expect Tokyo could smash this record; however, until they've been officially counted they can't claim it."