Why was Bernie Stolar fired right before the DC launched?

[Vicman]

I've yet to read about how and why Bernie Stolar got fired from Sega right before the Dreamcast launch. Does anyone have intimate info about this? From what I have read he played a big role in securing partnerships and deals with 3rd parties securing the DC's early success/momentum; but I've never learned about how and why he got fired...

[lordofduct]

Probably because of how he treated the Saturn... The Saturn was SoJ's pride and joy and Stolar treated it like the red headed step child. But I can not verify that, I just assume it under personal opinion.

[Vicman]

The best I've been able to find is this bit of info from the SegaBase article on the History of the Dreamcast:
http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/index-segadchistory1.html

"By August, the Dreamcast had completely shattered the advance sales record set by the PlayStation, with some 200,000 pre-orders placed through various retail outlets nationwide. Most major retailers reported that they were averaging 14,000 pre-orders a week, and Sega of America confidently predicted the trend would continue. Stolar and company were predicting Dreamcast console sales of 400,000 units in the first 30 days after launch, 1 million by the end of the year, and 1.5 million by 31 March 2000. One week later, Sega of America announced its upcoming "Mobile Assault Tour" to promote the U.S. Dreamcast launch. Starting 23 August and continuing for the next 22 weeks, two six-ton Sega "assault trucks" with trailers would tour 39 major U.S. cities, carrying sixteen Dreamcast system kiosks each and a variety of software to eager gamers across the nation in order to give them a taste of Sega's newest gaming experience. Old-time European Sega fans, upon hearing the news, could not help but draw parallels to Sega's "Pirate TV" ads for the 16-bit MegaDrive in Europe back in the early 1990s. The arrogant and overbearing Sega of the Saturn days had disappeared. In its place, it seemed, the bad and brash Sega of old had returned.

Sega of America's heavy-handed promotion of the Dreamcast to both potential vendors and customers had its price, though. Without warning, Sega of America president Bernie Stolar, who many credit with making the success of the Dreamcast launch possible in the first place, was forced to resign and leave the company. His was not the only head to roll - Gretchen Eichenger, vice president of third-party development, and Eric Hammond, vice president of internal development, also left around the same time. This meant that Sega of America was now going into Dreamcast launch mode without the management team that had laid its foundation in the first place. Stolar's replacement as head of Sega of America was Toshiro Kezuka, and among the chief members of Kezuka's management team was one Peter Moore, senior vice president of marketing. It was widely believed (and later confirmed) that Stolar's departure was encouraged in order to open up further third-party support, as his flamboyant style had caused measurable resentment among certain top-name third-party software houses. Stolar's departure may have also had a lot to do with his constant personality clashes with his boss, Sega CEO Isao Okawa, with whom he had never really gotten along. One can only imagine the scene at Sega of America, with thousands of fingers crossing as 9.9.99 inexorably approached. "

[Vicman]

Also for those that rail against Bernie as the worst thing to happen to Sega need to read SegaBase's History of the Saturn to see how much of the Saturn & Sega's downfall was SoJ's. Plus it'll enlight you to know that SoJ approved of much of what Bernie was doing with the Saturn.
http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/SegaBase-Saturn(Part2).html

[Melf]

Stolar was an ass, plain and simple. Aside from his attitude towards 3rd parties, he did nothing to help the Sega brand name. Remember when he said that the "Saturn was not Sega's future," thereby killing any chance it could ever have of even coming in second?

He did a great job with the DC's launch, but by then the writing was on the wall.

[Vicman]

Would you like to expand upon that Melf? From what I've read in that long and detailed history of Sega by Sam Pettus alot info points otherwise, but then again Bernie is and will always be an easy target for burned Saturn fans.

[Dartagnan1083]

Stolar managed the Saturn poorly.

Wether it was by design from wanky execs at SoJ, or by other means. . .he severely underpowered the Saturn.

On a side note, Bernie is also seen as one of the factors responsible for Barring the Shin Megami Tensei series from the states when he was still at SCEA.
Support to 2D games or RPGs wasn't part of the deal with bernie. . .at least not untill he saw the sales figures for FFVII.

Not totally a bad guy (bam! is ok for a localization house). . .but he really does deserve most of the burn from Sega fans.

I remember the articles with him saying "Saturn not sega's future" That was idiocy. Effectivly telling 3rd parties HEY, WERE DISCONTINUING OUR HARDWARE. . .FEEL FREE TO THROW MONEY AWAY ON A CONSOLE THAT CANNOT SHOW ANY FUTURE GROWTH.
Then there's the fiasco with working designs.
oi....far too many things to count.

[Mel]

Stolar managed the Saturn poorly.

Wether it was by design from wanky execs at SoJ, or by other means. . .he severely underpowered the Saturn.

On a side note, Bernie is also seen as one of the factors responsible for Barring the Shin Megami Tensei series from the states when he was still at SCEA.
Support to 2D games or RPGs wasn't part of the deal with bernie. . .at least not untill he saw the sales figures for FFVII.

Not totally a bad guy (bam! is ok for a localization house). . .but he really does deserve most of the burn from Sega fans.

I remember the articles with him saying "Saturn not sega's future" That was idiocy. Effectivly telling 3rd parties HEY, WERE DISCONTINUING OUR HARDWARE. . .FEEL FREE TO THROW MONEY AWAY ON A CONSOLE THAT CANNOT SHOW ANY FUTURE GROWTH.
Then there's the fiasco with working designs.
oi....far too many things to count.


??? Can I have links and details to stories from the history of saturn?

[Vicman]

Mel I've linked to a history of the Saturn in this very thread http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/SegaBase-Saturn(Part1).html but it seems that everyone is saying the same thing w/o reading the article by Sam Pettus that implies otherwise. Yes we all know about the "Saturn is not our Future" statement, but understanding why it was said instead of just railing against such a statement would prove beneficial if one cares for truth and objectivity.

"Over in the West, Bernie Stolar is the man most often blamed by Sega diehards in the U.S. for the death of the Saturn. Many reasons are cited, but they all tend to boil down to three key issues - his feud with Victor Ireland of Working Designs over Sega booth space at E3 1997, his public statement at the very same show about the future of the Saturn, and his implementation of the Five Star Games Policy. Let us take a moment to look at these three reasons and see just what bearing they had on Sega's worsening fortunes in 1997. In truth, the Saturn was dying long before Stolar came onto the scene, but since he is perceived by many as putting the final nails in its coffin, let us examine why this may in fact be so..."

"Playing your hand too early - The last thing you want to do in a high-stakes poker game is tip your hand, especially when it is a losing one. Hayao Nakayama was the first to do this by ordering the 1995 launch of the Saturn in the U.S. moved up five months despite the protests of Sega of America. In so doing, he left the Saturn high and dry as a console with virtually no software to sell, thus giving Sony the chance to blitz the media with pre-launch PlayStation hype and build up a decent launch library for the console. Surprisingly enough, Bernie Stolar would repeat Nakayama's mistake once he arrived at Sega, albeit for different reasons. In all honesty, this is the only major mistake that I can attribute to Stolar's tenure at Sega of America."

[Vicman]

Anyways the purpose of this thread was to find out about Bernie's firing in relation to the Dreamcast. I was hoping some of my fellow Sega-16 posters would have some info I might not know of but instead it's just become a big "Bernie Stolar sucks because of his Saturn mismanagement" -thread.

I now think I was naive in expecting otherwise. :? :(