For those who do not know history Bernie Stolar, who died at the age of 75we can summarize it very, very quickly, just by seeing in his resume that he was part of Atari, Sony and Segawhich plays a very important role in all of them (and sometimes quite complex), to the extent that we can be held directly responsible for some of the most memorable devices in the history of game consoles, as well as for their arrival, especially on the PlayStation, some of the most recognized franchises.

Let’s take a quick look at the most remarkable milestones of his career.

It always operates from the United States, but with a very direct line to the other side of the Pacific, However, Bernie Stolar’s first acclaimed footsteps took place in the American company Atari, born in 1972. To the youngest, this name says practically nothing, but we are talking about one of the historical companies in the field, with incredible relevance in its time. If you’ve ever heard of the legendary Pong, you should know that it was the work of Atari.

After several years at Atari, Bernie Stolar became the company’s director from 1990 to 1993, contributing to the launch of the brand’s two most memorable facilities: the journey overtook its time Atari JaguarA 64-bit console (with two 32-bit processors, not a 64-bit package), which, although hugely innovative, was a huge selling point, and so much remembered Atari LynxThe 8-bit handheld, which, despite failing to beat Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear, also gained some market share.

October 1993 is an important month in Bernie Stolar’s history, as it is the moment he leaves Sega and becomes vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, which he holds until July 1996. And what has happened over the years? ? Indeed, a great coup by Sony that would change everything in the sector, launch of the first generation PlayStation. The first step of a console that remains a leader more than a quarter of a century later.

Although work on the PlayStation hardware is well advanced as of the date Bernie Stolar arrives at Sony, much remains to be done to ensure that the console that stood up to the two greats of the time, Nintendo and Sege, has opportunities in such a difficult market. By that I mean, of course, to fill the catalog of games, and in that Stolar played his part with franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer, Oddworld Inhabitants, Spyro The Dragon and Battle Arena Toshinden.

We are already talking about a remarkable biography, but the truth is that the most interesting thing awaits us. As I told you, Bernie Stolar leaves Sony in July 1996 … what fate? Sega of America. Yes, it’s a leap from Sony to Sege, from a thriving Sony with its new and successful PlayStation to Sege, which “pierced” its Saturn, which did not achieve the expected success. By signing the bold Stolar, Sega intended to restore the lost ground.

And it wasn’t an easy time, Bernie Stolar had to carry out a deep personnel restructuring in Sega’s US division, an operation that involved more than 300 redundancies that reached just 400 employees. End? prepare everything a project he has been deeply involved in since day one: Dreamcast.

Image: Asim Saleem

To this end, Bernie Stolar did not neglect any front, from marketing to the game catalog. To compete with PlayStation in the image field, which was already becoming a mass phenomenon at the time, he hired Peter Moore, who worked at Reebok and who designed a great marketing campaign that it was not possible to get Sega to catch up with Sony, but it served to return the brand and supply the fresh air that the console had needed for some time.

As for the games, in addition to directly participating in the oversight of the catalog and actively participating in achieving part of its titles, the most important move was probably the acquisition in 1999 by Sega of America, a Visual Concepts Entertainment studio. Eleven years ago and which developed games for Windows and existing consoles on the market. And why was it so important? Because with part of your catalog the company has created a subsidiary whose name certainly sounds familiar: 2K Sports.

After leaving Sega, he went through several companies, some as an employee, in others as a founder and manager. Among the first to stand out is Mattel, where he was responsible for the successful Barbie saga or Google Games, where he served as an evangelist of games after a search engine company bought Adscape Media, of which he was CEO at the time. Bernie Stolar’s last project, active since 2014, was ZOOM Platform, an online store for classic GOG-style games.

As you can see, and if you didn’t know him before, Bernie Stolar is the history of video games, relax in peace.

With information from LinkedIn / VentureBeat

Image of Bernie Stolar: VentureBeat