The Ice Bucket Challenge–and effort to raise money and awareness for ALS–is sweeping the video game industry, and rolls on today with Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Shawn Layden. Watch the video above to see Layden, as well as other PlayStation employees and someone dressed as Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank, get a bucket of ice water dumped on their heads. The video was shot at PlayStation’s San Mateo, Calif. headquarters on a windy day, you’ll notice.
Layden nominated Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick (his second nomination), as well as GameStop president Tony Bartel and PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan, to take the challenge next. Per the guidelines of the Ice Bucket Challenge, nominees have 24 hours to complete it.
Yesterday, Xbox boss Phil Spencer accepted Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson’s challenge. Persson also nominated Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and Activision’s Kotick, but they have not completed the challenge yet, or at least they haven’t published videos online of themselves doing so. Others in the industry to be nominated include PlayStation president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. We’re still waiting on those videos, too.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a campaign to raise awareness and donate money toward research to find a cure for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Though the Ice Bucket Challenge has swept through various tech and media industries, it only very recently came to the video game business. And we expect the challenges will only continue. The best one I’ve seen so far, in the tech industry at least, was probably Bill Gates’ epic response to a challenge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Layden took on the role of president and CEO of SCEA in March after veteran PlayStation executive Jack Tretton quit that position and the company altogether.
Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch |
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