Bernie Stolar

Bernard "Bernie" Stolar is an American businessman who worked in the video game industry for several important companies. His career started at Atari where he worked initially in the coin-op arcade division and eventually moved over to the home division in charge of platforms like Atari Lynx. He served as President of the company. He also founded Pacific Novelty, an arcade cabinet manufacturer that produced four games: Shark Attack, Thief, NATO Defense, and The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea.

Before the U.S. release of the PlayStation home console, Sony made Stolar the first president of SCEA and placed him in charge of the PlayStation platform. Stolar implemented a "no-RPG" policy. Seeing as RPGs at the time were almost all 2D, they didn't sell well in North America and, in Stolar's opinion, failed to demonstrate the full capabilities of the PlayStation.

The PlayStation sold well during its first holiday season in the U.S., and Bernie, after being released from Sony, accepted an opportunity to helm Sega of America.

As the Saturn struggled in North America, Stolar pressed for development of a new console, one which would eventually become the Dreamcast.

Stolar is remembered for remarking at the 1997 E3 that the "Saturn is not our future" and also for stating that "there is no more Tekken" during a televised interview. Namco had already confirmed support for Sega's console starting with Soul Calibur. The Tekken line was Stolar's stab against Sony and its next generation plans, although Namco later confirmed that the PlayStation 2 would receive Tekken games.

On October 5 2006, Oasys Mobile, Inc. announced that Stolar would assume the role of Lead Director.