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GamesBeat has reported that the founder of Sony Computer Entertainment America and former president of Sega of America, Bernie Stolar, has passed away aged 75.
Stolar’s career kicked off in the 80s after founding a coin-op company, but he soon moved to Atari. There he worked on arcade games, home consoles, and lead the development of the Lynx.
But the 90s is when Stolar would become a big name in the industry. Stolar joined Sony and helped to form Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), where he was the executive vice president. Stolar oversaw the launch of the company’s first home console, the PlayStation, and the executive signed off a number of game franchises, including Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Oddworld, and Ridge Racer.
Stolar eventually left SCEA to join Sega, where he told the company that “We have to kill the Saturn”. As reported by GamesBeat, Stolar “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”.
Becoming President of Sega of America in 1998, Stolar was key in getting the Dreamcast to market and was the one to announce the console’s price. Stolar was later let go from Sega before the console launched. After this, he joined toy manufacturer Mattel as president and later worked at companies such as Adscape Media, Google, GetFugu, ZOOM Platform, and the Jordan Freeman Group.
We at Nintendo Life and the community send our thoughts and condolences to Stolar’s friends and family.
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