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Thread: Bernie Stolar passed away at the age of 75.

  1. Bernie Stolar passed away at the age of 75.

    https://www.eurogamer.net/sega-of-am...lar-dies-at-75

    Quote Originally Posted by Eurogamer
    Former Sega of America president and founding member of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Bernie Stolar, has died aged 75 years old.

    According to GamesBeat, Stolar - whose career started in 1980 when he set up his own coin-op arcade company - died in California. He had always been a very candid and transparent executive who talked openly about his triumphs and mistakes over the years.

    "I loved working for Sony," Stolar once said, according to GB. "I really did. But when the opportunity came up to go to Sega and help rebuild the business and come up with new hardware, I was very interested in doing it. I wouldn’t have left Sony if I hadn’t also lived in fear of getting fired along with everyone else, though.

    “When I got to Sega I immediately said, ‘We have to kill Saturn. We have to stop Saturn and start building the new technology.’ That’s what I did," he added. "I brought in a new team of people and cleaned house. There were 300-some-odd employees and I took the company down to 90 employees to start rebuilding."

    “I’ve been doing this since 1980. I love this business," Stolar also said in a 2015 interview, reflecting on the industry and how it's changed. "I love it because I get to work with people who are young and passionate. I’m one of the old gray-haired guys in the industry, but it’s wonderful to work with all this young talent.”
    He had a good run, though some Sega fans might not agree.

  2. To quote the great poet Del the Funky Homosapien

    "Bernie Stolar dropped the ball with the RAM cartridge, X-Men vs Street Fighter could have expanded the market"
    -Proto Culture
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  3. Quote Originally Posted by Timber View Post
    To quote the great poet Del the Funky Homosapien

    "Bernie Stolar dropped the ball with the RAM cartridge, X-Men vs Street Fighter could have expanded the market"
    -Proto Culture
    That's a very niche market. I had imported those games and bought an Action Replay 4M+ to make that happen.

    Most of the North American Saturn games are very expensive today, because a good portion of the software available for the console didn't sell well at all. Just looking at how expensive all of the North American versions of Capcom fighters are on the used market, clearly shows that there is a really small amount of those games available. People point at the 2 million plus Saturn consoles sold in NA and assume that a good portion of those people were still active users, but the software sales numbers don't back that. EA wouldn't even back the Dreamcast, unless Sega didn't release sports titles for the console. They obviously felt burned by the lack of sales they had on the Saturn.

  4. I don't think anything would have saved the Saturn in the US. Too much baggage after the 32x fiasco. From the hardware design to the botched early release to coincide with E3 that pissed off all the retailers, Sega of America did just about everything wrong for the Saturn. The launch software also sucked too (in terms of looks) when PS1's Ridge Racer and Toshinden looks way better than Daytona/VF.
    Last edited by kingoffighters; 29 Jun 2022 at 10:33 AM.

  5. Fond memories of interviews with Bernie Stolar in the late 90s anticipating the Dreamcast. Always seemed like a cool enough dude in my book.

  6. He got alot of guff from the Saturn's death but it was necessary. Del was wrong lol. That Godlike Saturn bundle with VF2, Virtua Cop and Daytona wasn't enough. RIP to Bernie!

  7. They were battling against a brand name. Nobody in Electronics had a bigger brand name than Sony in the 90s.

  8. I remember back when they first announced the Dreamcast, Sega rebooted their website. I think it had forums or some kinda messageboard. But they had some promo where the first people that signed up got a Dreamcast t-shirt. I scrambled to enter when I found out about it, but I forgot to put my apartment number. The only e-mail on the site was bernie@sega.com or something and I e-mailed and he responded back saying they'd fix it and made sure I got one.

    In retrospect, maybe it was his assistant or whatever, but that always made me believe he was a good guy. I think he brought a lot of hope to Sega. RIP.

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