Game legend Bernie Strah has died

According to a friend, Bernie Stolar, a former president of the video game legend Sega of America, died at the age of 75.

Stolar has become famous. I met him when he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Sega of America. So he led the development and launch of Sega Dreamcast. He was one of the more straightforward, honest, and memorable executives I met in the gaming industry.

Prior to that, Strah was the first Executive Vice President and Founding Member of Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have helped with the original game lineup for the launch of the original PlayStation. Sony has signed game franchises such as Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer, Oddworld Inhabitants, Spyro The Dragon, and Battle Arena Toshinden. But I quit the job.

“I loved working at Sony,” Stolar told me in an interview. “I really did. But when I got the chance to go to Sega to rebuild my business and come up with new hardware, I was very interested in doing that, but other. I wouldn’t have left Sony if I hadn’t lived for fear of being fired with everyone. “

I told him about it in 2015.

“1994 was when I did that, yeah. Unfortunately, Steve (Race) was fired by Jeff Sagansky, who ran Sony Computer Entertainment America, after others were fired. It changed the overall complexity of the company as Mr. Maruyama, a leadboard member of Japan’s PlayStation, came to reorganize the entire company. Everyone else was writing his job. “

“I was worried about what happened at that time. Everyone was fired. I felt I was the last man to stand. After Tom Kalinske left, I was the Sega of the Sega of. I received a job offer to become President of the United States. “

At Sega of America, Strah didn’t waste his time.

“When I got to Sega, I immediately said,’We have to kill Saturn. We have to stop Saturn and start building new technologies.” Is what I did. I brought in a new team and cleaned the house. With 300 weird employees, I reduced the company to 90 employees and started rebuilding, “Stolar said.

Stolar led the development and launch of Dreamcast. One of Stolar’s biggest moves at the time was to get the Visual Concepts of the Sega of America and create 2K Sports.

Dreamcast performed well in the United States, but lost to Sony PlayStation 2 globally.

“I took the position of Sega based on a conversation with Hayao Nakayama, the chairman of the company at the time,” Strah said. “We introduced and introduced a new hardware system to run online multiplayer games. That became Dreamcast. I led it. Unfortunately, Nakayama was Mr. Okawa at the end of 1999. I was kicked out of the company and when he was kicked out, I also had a discussion with Japan. I was also pushed out. “

I joined Mattel in 1999. He succeeded in selling Barbie video games during his tenure at Mattel CEO Jill Barad, who acquired The Learning Company.

“It was the right decision for Mattel to enter the software business,” Stolar said. “They just bought the wrong company. She was unaware that she was buying a company with top-end revenue but no revenue. When I joined, they were 100 a day. I was losing $ 10,000. At that time, the board asked me to withdraw from the business. That’s what I did. “

In late 2005, Stolar became an advisor and director of Adscape Media and later sold the company to Google for $ 23 million. At the time, he wanted to become a Google game evangelist and get them into the gaming business.

“At that time, Google wasn’t interested in games,” says Stolar. “I went to Eric Schmidt, CEO, and said,” Why don’t you advertise in all these games and offer them online for free? ” “We are not in the gaming industry,” he said. I said, “We don’t enter the game business. We don’t develop games. We receive games from publishers and stream them over our online network. I. Doesn’t do that. At that time I thought I should leave the company. I started helping them preach, but I knew I had no future. “

After that, Stolar moved to a startup. Companies such as GetFugu, Zoom Platform, Jordan Freeman Group and Cognitoys. When I interviewed in 2015, Stolar was 68 when he played that role at Cognitoys.

In that 2015 interview, comedian Martin Short reminded Stolar of making a joke at a game award show showing that Bernie worked for all companies in the gaming industry.

“For me, it’s about teams and products. You can’t win without the right team,” Strah replied. “When I saw what I did in Sega, I basically fired all seniors from sales and marketing and invited a whole new team. I took Peter Moore, who I worked with at Reebok. When I brought Peter, Hayao Nakayama said, “Why hire a shoe salesman?” I said, “I don’t care about it I think he understands how to make a brand. I want to rebuild this brand because now we are to consumers Because it shows that we are losing. We need to show them that we are a winning company. He finally agreed with me, so Peter got a job. “

Towards the end of the 2015 interview, Stolar said: “I’ve been doing this since 1980. I love this business. I love it because I can work with young and passionate people. I’m one of the oldest people in the industry, but this young It’s great to work with all your talents. “

Stolar joked that he could be the CEO’s grandfather he advised. I asked Strah how long he would work.

“Put it this way. I talked to Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch about this,” he said. “Both are in their 80s. They are both billions. They certainly don’t need to work, right? And they both told me,” When you retire, you die. ” I believe. He died three months later when his father sold a liquor store and quit his job. I won’t stop. “

The funeral will take place on Sunday at the Home of Peace Cemetery in Los Angeles at 11:00 am Pacific time.