Bernie Stolar, former Sega of America president and SCEA founder, has died aged 75
Bernard “Bernie” Stolar, a video game executive who oversaw the founding of Sony Computer Entertainment America, as well as serving as the President of Sega of America, has died aged 75.
As reported by GamesBeat, and verified in messages sent to the publication from Stolar’s friends, the businessman passed away in his home state of California.
With a career in gaming spanning from the early 1980s up until 1999, Stolar’s career spanned one of the most pivotal eras in the history of the medium, when he served as a high-ranking executive for almost every big player in the space.
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He began his career in 1980 when he co-founded Pacific Novelty Manufacturing Inc, a coin-op company which served arcades around the state of California. Following this, he would work for Atari in its coin-op division, before being moved to the company’s home console division.
He would oversee the Atari Lynx before being drafted by Sony as one of the founding members, and first president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Stolar was instrumental in signing the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer and Spyro the Dragon to the platform, however, controversially, he reportedly enforced a “no RPG” policy during his time at SCEA due to the genre mostly being in 2D at the time, and thus not showing off the power of the PlayStation.
Following the successful first year of the PlayStation, Stolar moved to Sega of America where he oversaw the launch of Sega Saturn. Stolar subsequently became Sega of America COO in March 1997 and president the following year.
Stolar’s most famous moment came when he announced that the Sega Dreamcast would be priced at $199 USD to a
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