Someone explain to me what Bernie Stolar was TRYING to do?

[Original_Name]

Kinda long, but it's a question I've always wanted answered:

It's the greatest source of contention for the western Saturn fan: why did Bernie did what he done? I understand that after the rough times Sega had with the American media's response to the Sega CD, the disasterous existence of the 32X, and the embarassing botched launch of the Saturn, it seemed like a good idea for Sega of America to hire Bernie Stolar, previous president of Sony Computer Entertainment America (and head of the far more successful PlayStation launch) to fix Sega's mistakes.

But then the subsequent gameplan was a nightmare. The extent to which I understand his viewpoint is that the PlayStation had a really cool image at that time, in that it was hitting it big with the mass-audience with titles such as Crash Bandicoot, Cool Boarders, and Tekken. Games you were hearing about whether you were a hardcore gamer or not, therefore Bernie desired to pull the Saturn out of the gutter by pushing similarly big, mass-appeal titles, such as Tomb Raider... except that despite it coming to the Saturn first, Sega did so little to draw attention to it that many gamers to this day think it's a PlayStation exclusive. But that's okay, Sega still ran TV ads for NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Sonic R, and uh... um... is there anything else?

Wait, what's going on here? Bernie Stolar wants to have mass-appeal, but not do any marketing? Do absolutely nothing to get the word out about these games? Well fine then, market towards the niche audience. They're there, they have their Saturns, and they've obviously proven very faithful, playing NiGHTS, Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, whatever Capcom fighters they could get their hands on, and Virtua Cop 2 and Virtual ON (in all likelyhood being played with pricey peripherals) ever so diligently. And what's that I hear them asking for?

"GRANDIA!!"

"But Western gamers NEVER buy RPG's!"

"...we bought Dragon Force and love it. That was a Sega RPG that Working Designs brought over for you guys. Why don't you let them release it?"

"NO! They'll mess up the translation!"

No Grandia. Exit Working Designs from the Saturn scene.

"Can we have Castlevania: SOTN, Princess Crown, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter?"

"Of course not! Those games are 2D, and 2D is for nerds!"

"But two of those games are hits on PlayStation..."

"Go away."

"...what about Thunder Force V? Thunder Force was a staple of the Genesis library, and it has lots of 3D. Oh, and Bulk Slash looks absolutely incredible!"

"No. Go away."

"...well, what CAN we have?"

"Probably nothing. The Saturn's a still-born. If you live in a high-population density area you might get lucky, because we're distributing some really awesome games in super-low print runs to like, 10 American cities. Hope you luck out and get to play Panzer Dragoon Saga. If not, there's still plenty of copies of Sonic 3D Blast and Bug! floating around."

Now here's what I don't understand... Sega of America understood that they had a really small user-base, so when they released their final batch of great Saturn titles such as Panzer Dragoon Saga, Burning Rangers, and Shining Force III, they released them in super-low print-runs, which got gobbled up (as evidenced by their current re-sale values), which makes me wonder -- why didn't they do this all along!? Sega of America showed NO initiative to buy out big-name third-party titles for exclusivity, and was even sluggish to port their OWN games to their OWN console, which is absolutely pathetic. There was no hope for mass-appeal on the Saturn, so why forsake not only your own gamers, but your own DOLLARS by not translating and releasing the high-demand titles in low print-runs? Even if you didn't want to sit around and translate the RPG's -- did ALL of those great fighters, shooters, and action-platformers really have to go to waste in the American market when all you had to do was translate a few sentences worth of Japanese and menus? And how was it at all a wise move to prevent a company which was translating and distributing these high-demand titles FOR YOU from doing so?

Honestly, can anyone tell me how this was SUPPOSED to work? In what fucked reality did anyone think these courses of action were a good idea? I'm serious, I would be very appreciative if someone could explain to me the business psychology behind these decisions.

[dedalusdedalus]

This seems like an inefficient way to get an answer. Have you tried asking Bernie?

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bernard-stolar/14/738/97

[Jrecee]

I think it probably had a lot more to do with conflicts between SOA and SOJ than him having a bad business plan for SOA. I don't think sega had the money to market the saturn, at least not compared to Sony, which is a much bigger company than sega.

[Original_Name]

Hahaha, I seriously doubt Bernie Stolar is going to take the time out of his day to acknowledge the rantings of a fanboy who can't let the past of 15 years go. I was just hoping that someone could swing in and go, "Oh, you're missing something Original_Name, here's a link!" or "Well, it roots from this common business strategy -- here's an example of it working." or something...

[dedalusdedalus]

Hahaha, I seriously doubt Bernie Stolar is going to take the time out of his day to acknowledge the rantings of a fanboy who can't let the past of 15 years go.

You'd be surprised how willing people are to talk about themselves, if you just frame the question in an open-minded and non-judgmental way.

Besides, what's the worst that can happen? Bernie Stolar ignores you or writes a snarky message and you'll laugh it off. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[racketboy]

Let me know if he responds -- maybe we can have him on the podcast

[swiftzx]

Let me know if he responds -- maybe we can have him on the podcast

That would be awesome!

[dsheinem]

Let me know if he responds -- maybe we can have him on the podcast

My thoughts exactly.

[Original_Name]

Hahaha, okay I'll try it. I'll clean it up a whole lot and ask him from a business standpoint how that strategy could have produced a successful campaign, and how much responsibility he actually had in those marketing and localizing decisions.

[Jrecee]

These executive types are not like normal people. I heard they invite idiots to dinners and then make fun of them.