GamesBeat reported that the founder of Sony Computer Entertainment America and former Sega president of America, Bernie Stolar, has died at the age of 75.
Stolar’s career began in the 80s after founding a cryptocurrency trading company, but he soon moved to Atari. There he worked on arcade games, home consoles, and led the development of Lynx.
But the ’90s was when Stolar became a big name in the industry. Stolar joined Sony and helped found Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), where he was executive vice president. Stolar oversaw the launch of the company’s first home console, PlayStation, and the executive signed on to several game franchises, including Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Strange worldand Ridge Racer.
Stolar eventually left SCEA to join Sega, where he told the company “We have to kill Saturn”. As reported by GamesBeat, Stolar “put on a new team and cleaned the house. There were 300 odd employees and I reduced the company to 90 employees to start rebuilding”.
Becoming President of Sega of America in 1998, Stolar was a key player in bringing the Dreamcast to market and announced the console’s pricing. Stolar was later released from Sega before the console’s launch. He later joined toy maker Mattel as president and later worked at companies such as Adscape Media, Google, GetFugu, ZOOM Platform, and Jordan Freeman Group.
We at Nintendo Life and the community send our thoughts and condolences to Stolar’s friends and family.
