Bernie Stolar
Bernie Stolar passed away. He ran numerous game companies across a career that spanned 30-plus years.
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Gaming legend Bernie Stolar passes away

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

Video game legend Bernie Stolar, former president of Sega of America, has passed away at the age of 75, friends said.

Stolar became famous. I met him when he was president and chief operating officer of Sega of America, where he helped lead the development and launch of the Sega Dreamcast. He was one of the more blunt and honest — as well as memorable — executives that I met in the game industry.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.