Death by gaming: Teen dies after playing game for 40 hours

The Taiwanese teenager collapsed and died at an internet cafe after playing Diablo 3, a popular online video game, for 40 consecutive hours says Taiwan's United Daily News broadsheet, according to Associated Press.

The 18-year-old identified by only his surname, Chuang, booked a private room at the cafe in Tainan, southern Taiwan, around noon on July 13 and played for nearly two days without eating, according to AP's report of the United Daily News story.

On the morning of July 15, an attendant entered the room and found Chuang resting on a table. After the attendant woke him, he stood, took a few steps and then collapsed, the report said.

He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital, it said.

According to the report, the actual cause of death is unknown. Police are investigating the cause and an autopsy is being carried out but they have speculated that long hours in a sedentary position created cardiovascular problems for Chuang, AAP reports.In February, heart failure was the attributed cause of the reported death of a man in New Taipei who was found dead, slumped in a chair facing a computer with his arms still reaching out for the keyboard after playing for 23 hours.

The teenager who died this week reportedly had been playing the latest installment of the role-playing game developed by US-based Activision Blizzard.