Bernie Stolar, who is known as the legend of Atari, Sony and Sega companies and left a permanent name in the game world, passed away at the age of 75.
Bernard “Bernie” Stolar, a senior executive who served at Atari, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sega of America, passed away at the age of 75 on June 22 after a long illness. As an influential and admired figure in the game world, Stolar left behind a legacy that shapes modern games.
Bernie Stolar, known as the Father of PlayStation, left a lot of good behind
Stolar stepped into the business world in 1980 as the co-founder of the coin-operated machinery company. Later, with the offer from Atari company, he switched to the arcade game world. After working here for a while and proving his existence, he succeeded in moving to the home console division of Atari, in the same company, where he pioneered the development of the Atari Lynx handheld console in the early 1990s.
Stolar is the first vice president and founding member of Sony Computer Entertainment America. He played a very important role in both the launch and creation of the original Playstation game catalogs. He has personally signed many game series at Sony, including Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer, Oddworld Inhabitants, Spyro The Dragon and Battle Arena Toshinden. He later served as president and chief operating officer of Sega of America, where he led the development and launch of Dreamcast.
Steven L. Kent, who has been a journalist and freelance playwright since his death, gathered up the memories of the leading names of the games industry with Stolar and began to write his story briefly. Here are the notes shared by some important people in this story,
Rob Dyer, now chief operating officer at Capcom, said, “Bernie was bigger than life. PlayStation was nothing back then, but PlayStation was the only one who believed in something good in the future. He was my mentor when I became President of Crystal”
Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s COO, said: “Bernie has worked hard to make PlayStation the highest-paid and most-supported platform by developers, and it has succeeded.”
Scott Hawkins, who previously worked in software licensing and partner relations at Nintendo, said, “Bernie loved to fight against my opponents. For example, Sega was not invited to a golf tournament organized by Sony once, but Sony had them replace the golf balls to be used in that tournament with Sega golf balls and put a person in Sonic the Hedgehog outfit to drive the golf cart. We will miss his competitive spirit and friendship.”
Jordan Freeman, the young founder of the Zoom Platform, said, “When Bernie believes in you, he really does. He doesn’t have any questions in his mind, he would just help you succeed.”
“Bernie was a man who devoted his life and passion to the video game industry,” said Kutaragi, who oversaw the creation of the PlayStation 1,2, and 3 and even the PSP and was very close to Stolar, who is widely regarded as the “Father of PlayStation”. He’s also one of my best friends and we’ve made a lot of memories together even when we’re away from work.” He added, “His friendly smile and playful gestures still haunt me. Thank you for all your hard work, time and dedication. Please rest in peace in heaven.”