Bernard “Bernie” Stolara video game executive who oversaw the Sony Computer Entertainment America is founded (SCEA), in addition to working as president of Sega of Americais died at the age of 75.
As reported by GamesBeat and confirmed by numerous messages sent to the publication by Stolar’s friends, the businessman passed away in California, his native state. His very rich career in the gaming world has developed and flourished between the 80s and 90suntil 1999, living in full one of the most crucial epochs in the entire history of the videogame, namely the birth and affirmation of the eighth art.
During those years, Stolar worked as a high-level executive for almost every big player. He started his career in 1980 when he became co-founder of Pacific Novelty Manufacturing Inc, a coin-op company that served arcades throughout the state of California. Afterwards, Bernie has worked for Atari in its coin-op division, before being moved to the company’s home console division (dedicated to home gaming platforms).
Stolar has supervised the Atari Lynx before joining Sony as one of the founding members of Sony Computer Entertainment America and the latter’s first president. He was instrumental in the affirmation, on the historical platform, of timeless masterpieces of the caliber of Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer And Spyro the Dragonwhich still today make vintage-loving gamers dream, and enthrall newbies with works of yesteryear, yes, but timeless.
Controversially, Bernie applied one “no RPG” policy during his time at SCEA due to the mostly 2D genre of the time, which didn’t allow him to show the power of PlayStation. Following the console’s first-year success, Stolar moved to Sega of America, where he oversaw the launch of Sega Saturnlater becoming COO of the company in March 1997, and president the following year.
His moment of glory came when announced the Sega Dreamcast priced at $ 199 USD, speech from 1999 that earned him a standing ovation. It later emerged that Sega of Japan had insisted that the price be $ 249 USD to maximize profits. In a 2015 interview, Stolar said:
I took my position at Sega after conversations with Hayao Nakayama, who was then president of the company. We wanted to establish and introduce a new hardware system to create online multiplayer games. This is what Dreamcast became, and I was the one who led the project. Unfortunately, Nakayama was fired from the company by Mr. Okawa in 1999, and after his expulsion, I had a fight with Japan. I too was fired.
Bernard Stolar died leaving an indelible imprint on the video game world, and many fans are writing posts and comments to make others participate in this pain.
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