Former Sega Of America President And SCEA Founder, Bernie Stolar, Dies At 75

Bernie Stolar (ex-President Sega of America) has been killed at age 75. He was also the founder of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Here is an obituary by Steven L. Kent (author and gaming journalist), sent to Game Informer Use the following in total: 

6/22/2022, LOS ANGELES, CA–Bernard “Bernie” Stolar, a former top executive at Atari, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Sega of America, passed away at the age of 76.

“Bernie was a low-key guy. He kept his ego in check,” remembers Vince Desi, founder of Running with Scissors. “I’ve known Bernie for a long time, and I’ve never heard him raise his voice. He was a gentleman in an industry where there really aren’t many.” 

Stolar’s introduction to the video game business came with the 1981 release of an arcade game called Shark Attack. Created by Pacific Novelty and manufactured by Game Plan—an Illinois-based pinball manufacturer, Shark Attack was a game in which players controlled a white shark as it ate its way through groups of skindivers. 

Stolar had to inform Sid Sheinberg, Universal Studios CEO about the project. After released the movie Jaws in 1975, Universal claimed a certain ownership on shark-themed entertainment, and Sheinberg was notorious for suing companies he felt had infringed on his studio’s intellectual properties. (In 1982, Sheinberg would unsuccessfully take Nintendo to court claiming Donkey Kong infringed on his studio’s version of the movie King Kong.)  

Stolar was granted permission to make 1,000 Shark Attack machines, but he did not pay royalty fees. He built 990 Shark Attack machines before deciding to end the project. 

Stolar didn’t stray far away from gaming over the following decade. He opened a successful San Francisco arcade called the State Street Arcade then took a job with Atari’s coin-op. division. In 1984, he was still working at Atari when Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore Computers bought the company. 

Tramiel was a Polish Jew, who survived Nazi concentration camps. He is well-known for his volatile personality and uncompromising business methods. Openly mocked anyone showing weakness and cycled through all his employees. Despite Tramiel’s reputation as a “boss from hell,” Stolar thrived under his leadership becoming the president of Atari from 1990 through 1993 when he decided to risk his career by taking a job with a relative lightweight in the video game industry named Sony. 

It is hard to believe that Sony Computer Entertainment was even possible in the 1990s. Sony’s early efforts at publishing games, generally sold under its Imagesoft label, included such forgettable games Super NES, Genesis, and SegaCD as Cliffhanger, Bran Stoker’s Dracula, and the poorly regarded ESPN sports series. Sony’s most notable game. Prior to 1995’s PlayStation launch, Mickey Mania was a Disney licensed adventure.

It was during his three-year tenure as Sony Computer Entertainment America’s executive vice president in charge of business development and third-party relations that Stolar took on a more public persona. Small-time coin-op. While arcade owners and manufacturers may not have been noticed, mainstream media as well as the gaming press kept close tabs on manufacturers such Nintendo, Sega, Sony and others. 

“I met Bernie in 1995,” remembers Rob Dyer, chief operating officer at Capcom U.S.A., Inc. “I was the vice president of international operations (at Crystal Dynamics) doing deals, selling products, and getting Crystal Dynamics products placed with distributors overseas, and Bernie had just started as the head of third-party for PlayStation here in the U.S.” 

“Bernie was larger than life. PlayStation was not yet a reality at that time. However, he arrived with a bigger-than-life outlook and predicted that PlayStation would become something. We were told by him that games needed to be made for Sony. 

“We had failed on 3DO. Saturn had been a failure. Next, we succeeded on PlayStation. 

“I did a ton of deals with Bernie over the years… especially when I became president of Crystal. He was a mentor of mine.” 

A lot of noise has been made about Stolar’s decision not to pursue role-playing games for PlayStation. Stolar’s goal was to create the best launch lineup possible that would draw the most market share away Nintendo and Sega as fast as possible. Stolar made the right decision in short term with this goal. 

RPGs did not sell well in the U.S. market, with some exceptions. Stolar chose to focus on fighting games, and other genres that have a larger following. Sony was able to establish a strong position in the U.S console market early thanks to the six month exclusive that he had arranged for Williams with Mortal Kombat III. 

Stolar’s indifference toward RPGs remains controversial. Final Fantasy VII’s 1997 release is cited by critics as evidence that he was mistaken. FFVII was the most-sold game in 1997. However, Square and Sony spent $100 million on marketing it to ensure its success.  

During Stolar’s tenure at Sony, the company’s marketing budget was focused on launching the PlayStation itself. At the time, Sony didn’t have $100 million to spend on one particular game. 

Stolar took over the role of president and COO of Sega of America in July 1996 from Tom Kalinske, a console fighter. 

Stolar’s critics have unfairly accused him of killing the Sega Saturn—Sega’s fifth generation game console. Saturn’s design was flawed from the beginning. Hard to program and designed to specifically to support arcade ports, Saturn took an early lead over PlayStation in Japan based on the popularity of an arcade port-Sega’s Virtua Fighter.  

While Virtua Fighter was a hit in U.S. and European as well, the arcade business was dwindling outside Japan, and western consumers weren’t nearly as excited about game. Sega also alienated customers and retailers by quietly launching Saturn five months earlier than planned with just a few games and a $399 price.  

Sega was already ahead of Nintendo and Saturn by the time Stolar joined. Stolar’s plans, such as the Mortal Kombat exclusive, were a part of some of this success. 

When Sega pulled the plug on the Saturn in 1998 and announced new hardware, Stolar worked feverishly to create an aggressive marketing campaign that would cut into Sony’s growing grip on the U.S. market. Under his leadership, Sega teased its new Dreamcast game console, arranged an unprecedented 18-game launch line up, and hired Reebok’s senior vice president of sports marketing, Peter Moore.  

“I thank Bernie for my start in this industry, a career that has lasted 20-plus years,” says Moore. “None of that would have happened without Bernie believing in some shoe guy who could take skills for marketing sneakers and use them to market video games.  

Asked what impressed him about Stolar, Moore said, “He was feisty, combative for all the right reasons, and wanted to do the right thing all the time for the customer.” 

Moore would then go on to lead Xbox, EA Sports, Sega of America and Sega of America. Sega fired Stolar in August 1999 with only one month until the Dreamcast’s launch. With Stolar’s plans in place and Moore at the helm, the September 9th, 1999 U.S. launch of the Sega Dreamcast’s was an incredible success even though the console itself was doomed from its inception.  

Electronic Arts refused to create games for them, the largest game publisher in America. Square in Japan refused. Sega struggled to make games comparable with Final Fantasy and Madden NFL without Square and EA. Sega couldn’t compete with well-oiled Sony’s hype machine and the public’s fascination with the PlayStation brand. The market had forgotten about Dreamcast by the time that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo launched their respective new systems. 

Stolar was a legend in the gaming industry. Mattel Interactive, which he ran for three-years, was an advisor to Cisco, Golden Gate Capital and the Interim CEO of Adscape Media (which launched February 2006), digital advertising space for video games. When Google purchased Adscape one year later, Bernie became the net giant’s games evangelist. 

“My first impressions of Bernie were that he was arrogant and rude,” recalls Eva Woo Slavitt, who worked with him at Adscape Media and continued working with him after the company was purchased by Google. “Underneath that external persona was a genuinely kind and caring gentleman. 

“Bernie was a relationship builder, and I cherish the time that we worked together.” 

Stolar continued to be active in video games until the day he died. In 2014, he was named the executive chairman of Zoom Platforms and became a personal mentor for Jordan Freeman, the company’s young founder. 

“I shouldn’t have been able to reach a person like Bernie,” remembers Freeman, “but he took my call and asked to look at a business proposal.” 

Sherry McKenna is the Oddworld Inhabitants CEO. She describes Stolar to be honest and gruff. McKenna met Stolar for the first time in 1970. After a career as a movie producer, McKenna lost contact with Stolar and decided to start Oddworld Inhabitants.

“Lorne (co-founder, Lorne Lanning) and I were just starting out at Oddworld Inhabitants and had just moved to new offices in Los Osos (California) when I get this message across my desk that says ‘Vice President of Sony Bernie Stolar.’” 

McKenna called Stolar, not expecting him take her call. Instead of answering her call, he mentored her and helped her sign a deal for Sony Computer Entertainment America. 

“When Bernie believed in you, he absolutely believed in you. There weren’t any questions, he just helped you succeed.”

All staff are friendly and helpful. Game Informer Stolar’s loved ones are offered their condolences.