Bitmob interview with Bernie Stolar

[|darc|]

Bitmob has a great interview with Bernie Stolar, the President of Sega of America who was ousted just before the Dreamcast launched. It is an interesting read and Stolar offers some insight into why the Dreamcast may have failed.

[Christuserloeser]

Bitmob: The big thing I think people would like to hear in your own words is, why were you let go from Sega right before Dreamcast’s launch? Why right then?

Stolar: As I said before, Mr. Okawa...he wanted to release this strictly on the Internet and I refused! He and I just went through major differences.

- I don't think I really understand what he means when he says that Okawa wanted "ro release this strictly on the Internet".

Bitmob: Does it surprise you that Dreamcast’s online capabilities didn’t catch on better at the time?

BS: It doesn’t surprise me, because there wasn’t software tied into it. They were not building and going after software to start that.

I mean, I was looking for developers and content providers to start doing that. Sega did not do that after I left. They just abandoned it.

That is not correct: Sega of Japan worked on online games. Sonic Team had Chu Chu Rocket and Phantasy Star Online in the works. No one could know that Moore would cancel Dreamcast even before Phantasy Star Online was even released.

[Ex-Cyber]

Bitmob: The big thing I think people would like to hear in your own words is, why were you let go from Sega right before Dreamcast’s launch? Why right then?

Stolar: As I said before, Mr. Okawa...he wanted to release this strictly on the Internet and I refused! He and I just went through major differences.

- I don't think I really understand what he means when he says that Okawa wanted "ro release this strictly on the Internet".

Probably avoiding distribution to retail stores (which involves a bunch of issues like fighting for shelf space, agreements to buy back unsold stock, etc.) and just selling them through a site like D-Direct.

[cube_b3]

This guy is a prick and is insulting a dead man's memory.

[Christuserloeser]

I disagree. Stolar was the best CEO that Sega of America ever had.

He took over his position at a time when the company was operating at a loss of $200 million US Dollars, and although he couldn't turn things around during the two years he was in charge, he did push for Dreamcast, and without [Okawa hiring Moore and] Moore discontinuing Dreamcast, he might have succeeded.

[cube_b3]

He killed the Saturn, rather than salvage the mess he pushed for the premature birth of Dreamcast and coast Sega of Japan all the market share they gained with the Saturn.

He also destroyed Sega's relationship with EA.

[Eviltaco64X]

Stolar really likes to play the victim in the whole situation.

First he blocked a lot of excellent 2D games from being published over here (which definitely helped kill the Saturn), then he completely killed all hope for the Saturn by saying "it wasn't their future", and pushed for the Dreamcast when the Saturn was doing very well over in it's home country. It's like he hated the damn console!

Honestly, if he stayed behind the Saturn, removed that ridiculous policy, and let it see limited success for another year or two, then Sega probably could have developed the Dreamcast with more time and better, cheaper technology on their hands. They would have probably been a lot better off.

Hell, they would've been a lot better off never hiring him in the first place.

[cube_b3]

Even if the Dreamcast wasn't amped up, it would've been born under a positive light.

Dreamcast payed heavily for the sins of Genesis add-ons and the termination of the Saturn, I personally think the add-ons were forgivable but shutting of the Saturn even ruined Sega's rep in Japan even though it had games coming out 2 years after the release of Dreamcast.

But the bottom line is Sega HQ listened to him, instead of demanding that he does his job and sell the damn Saturn's rather than condemning them.