Bernie Stolar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007) (Find sources: Bernie Stolar – news, books, scholar) |
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 like Atari Lynx. He served as President of the company. He also founded Pacific 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 the PlayStation 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 removed as President from Sega of America, receiving a $5 million 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.[1] 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.
In Jan 2009, Stolar announced that he was taking the reins of mobile startup, Getfugu Inc. Getfugu has designed a new way to surf the internet from mobile phones. The company expects to launch its application on Labor Day 2009.
