- Bernie Stolar
Bernard "Bernie" Stolar is an American businessman who worked in the video game industry for several important companies. His career started at
Atari where he worked initially in the coin-op arcade division and eventually moved over to the home division in charge of platforms likeAtari Lynx . He served as President of the company. He also foundedPacific Novelty , an arcade cabinet manufacturer that produced four games: "Shark Attack", "Thief", "NATO Defense", and "The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea ".Before the U.S. release of the
PlayStation home console,Sony made Stolar the first president of SCEA and placed him in charge of the PlayStation platform. Stolar implemented a "no-RPG" policy. Seeing as RPGs at the time were almost all 2D, they didn't sell well in North America and, in Stolar's opinion, failed to demonstrate the full capabilities of the PlayStation.The PlayStation sold well during its first holiday season in the U.S., and Bernie, after being released from Sony, accepted an opportunity to helm
Sega of America.As the Saturn struggled in North America, Stolar pressed for development of a new console, one which would eventually become the
Dreamcast .Stolar is remembered for remarking at the 1997 E3 that the "Saturn is not our future" and also for stating that "there is no more "Tekken" during a televised interview.
Namco had already confirmed support for Sega's console starting with "Soul Calibur ". The "Tekken" line was Stolar's stab against Sony and its next generation plans, although Namco later confirmed that thePlayStation 2 would receive "Tekken" games.Insider reports suggest that Stolar overruled his Japanese superiors by pricing the Dreamcast for launch at $199. Reportedly, Sega Japan wanted to set the price at $249 to generate profits immediately. The launch of the Dreamcast was the most successful commercial console launch in the history of gaming selling over US$300mln of hardware and software in its first week of launch. Before the Dreamcast's American launch, Stolar was relieved of his duties as President from Sega of America, receiving a $5 million dollar severance package.
In late 2005, Stolar became an advisor and director at Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company. His support contributed to securing venture capital in early 2006, establishing key relationships with game producers, and the company's eventual acquisition by
Google in early 2007. [ [http://www.google.com/press/annc/annc_adscape.html Google has acquired Adscape Media] ] Stolar has been serving as Google's Game Evangelist since the sale of the company.On
October 5 2006 , Oasys Mobile, Inc. announced that Stolar would assume the role of Lead Director.References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
