One of the most important people behind the OG PlayStation and the Dreamcast has passed on at the age of 75.
bernie stolarbernie stolar
Bernie Stolar was instrumental in the launch of Sony's first-ever PlayStation console and the equally iconic Sega Dreamcast back in the 90s. According to Kotaku, the former business mogul/exeutive started his career in 1980 by founding a coin-op company which served arcades in California, before moving to Atari where he worked on the company's arcade games and game consoles.
After his stint at Atari, Stolar came to Sony as the co-founder of Sony Computer Entertainment Of America (SCEA). He served as the company's first EVP as well, where his efforts were also instrumental in building the PlayStation brand's earliest games library. This led to the likes of Ridge Racer, Spyro, and Crash Bandicoot being the iconic exclusives that they were.
But while working at Sony, however, Bernie Stolar apparently had a so-called "no RPG" policy, writes VideoGamesChronicle. His reason? RPGs were stuck in 2D graphics at the time, and he felt that 2D didn't show off the power of the OG PlayStation enough. And he was right, as the first PlayStation console turned out to be of the most important systems in the push for 3D graphics - something we now take for granted today.
It will not end there, of course, as you can see from the title. Stolar then moved to Sega next, where he also oversaw the launch of the company's two consoles: the Saturn and the Dreamcast. According to VentureBeat, he was particularly involved in the development of the Dreamcast, serving as the head of the project and mentioning how the Sega console was among the first to do online multiplayer - before Xbox Live made things global and ubiquitous.
After Sega, Stolar went into many different ventures. He was at the toymaker Mattel in 1999 and was again a key part of the company's entry into the video game business. Six years later, he would join Adscape Media which he would sell to Google for a cool $23 million - bringing him into the search engine giant's arms and professing that they get into gaming. His efforts were in vain, however, and he eventually moved on.
There will be a funeral servvice for Stolar at the Home Of Peace Cemetery in Los Angeles this March 3rd, to be conducted at 11AM PT.
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How Good Were The OG PlayStation And The Sega Dreamcast?
Both consoles were very, very important to modern gaming as we know it today. But the PS1 might've never even seen the light of day because at the beginning, Sony wasn't invested in the games industry as a whole. And according to GamingBolt, whatever interested the company had in games was marred by the fact that they can't do it alone.
So, they sought partnerships - specifically with Nintendo - but would be spurred by the fellow Japanese giant for rival Philips. This then made Sony realize that they'll have to do it on their own, and with the help of a young Ken Kutaragi (known as the father of PlayStation), they released their first, 3D-only console that took the world by storm.
As for the Sega Dreamcast, remember that we said it was one of the earliest to offer online multiplayer functionalities. That is true. But it's also not just online multiplayer. The console itself, according to GameRant, even had its own internet browser. This was an absolute revolution at the time when the internet itself was still very, very young.
Without the efforts of Bernie Stolar, the PlayStation and Dreamcast would not have influenced all other consoles that came after them.
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This article is posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
