"The Saturn is NOT our Future", "Video Gaming should be Secondary to our company", "RPGs are a fluke", "Dreamcast was a misguided idea", "Software is our future".
These are infamous Quotes from the two stupidest, most blissfully ignorant businessmen in Video Gaming and from two Blackhearted Villains who are responsible for singlehandedly destroying SEGA in the 1990s: Bernie Stolar, the Secret Sony Spy hired and appointed to ruin Sega of America and erode away all of the marketshare,good fortune and consumer trust that SOA had build with Genesis. And Isao Okawa: The Dormant Virus deep down at SEGA's parent company, the Absentmindedly run CSK Enterprises/Holdings who was responsible for most of the poor business decisions and misguided investments at SEGA and who ended up pulling the plug on Dreamcast in 2001 just because the console was faring much better in American markets than it was in Japan.
Now with Okawa, there's lots of biased misinformation floating around about him, often praising him, calling him a hero, or "the man who saved SEGA from doom" or false,inaccurate information claiming he played a crucial role in the development of all of SEGA's consoles.(Including the lie that he helped fund Dreamcast's development with $40 million of his own money,) All of this will be debunked here as I explain that Okawa had NOTHING to do with any of the development of SEGA consoles. His company CSK were the mere parent company and financial holder of SEGA Enterprises. They played no part in console development of any kind. If anything, all they did was fund, and it was their moronic shareholders, NOT Sega who nearly ran the company into the ground. Basically, Isao "Baka" Okawa pulled the plug because the Executives responsible for SEGA's consoles and Hardware "Hayao Nakayama" and "Soichiro Irimajiri" left the company(Nakayama after Dreamcast's lackluster Japanese sales, and Irimajiri after Okawa muscled his way in as President with the sole agenda of destroying the gaming brand).
But first I'm simply going to get a brief synopsis on Bernie "Asstard" Stolar, the former Sega of America COO who was hired by Sega in 1996 from Sony Computer Entertainment America as well as list 10 facts(10 STUPID business decisions he made).
Bernard Stolar was Sega of America's Chief Operating Officer from 1996-1999. He was formerly the lead Marketing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment. He joined in June 1996 after Tom Kalinske was booted from SEGA for rushing the Saturn out in the US, he had been picked by then Global Company Division Officer Shinobu Toyoda in the hopes that the success of the PlayStation would rub off on SEGA, instead Toyoda had sealed the fate of the whole company without realizing Stolar's hidden agenda: To DESTROY all of Sega of America, its good will and marketshare it had built with Sega Genesis, and run the Saturn all the way into the ground by secretly cutting off its access to Sleeper hit RPGs and AA Japanese titles so that they could go to PlayStation exclusively outside of Japan.
There's not much I'd like to say about this Asshole and Retard. Except that its well known how MUCH damage he inflicted on the company. Although Nakayama's good close friend, Soichiro Irimajiri was Sega West's CEO(Both SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe), he was powerless to stop Stolar's frequent sabotage. Stolar personally HATED Saturn, and saw to it is complete and total failure. He WANTED Saturn to crash and burn at the expense of the entire company suffering and Sega of America being tormented. Why? "Because The Sega Saturn is a nightmare and confusing mess of video gaming hardware, its too difficult to program and is technically inferior to PlayStation and Nintendo 64" these were his own words at GDC 1998. All total B.S. corporate speak.
Stolar is also why EA skipped Dreamcast. It was well know how ABYSMAL his relations with 3rd party partners were. Lobotomy Software is Qouted to have said "It blows our mind that Bernie Stolar is employed at the Executive Level at Sega. He's a bad fit that clearly doesn't belong there. He also personally expresses dislike and disdain for the Saturn because everytime we tried to obtain an American SDK, he would tell us, Sega of Japan won't sent them out, so we had to order them from Japan.".
Stolar also ruined Working Designs. A development studio that personally believed in the Saturn, for more on what he did to WD, read here:http://www.gaijinworks.com/interact/showthread.php?56-WD-Trivia-Storytime-Thread
The reason why EA skipped Dreamcast is because after its announcement in May of 1998, EA approached Sega of America about licensing PS1 ports over to Dreamcast hardware, but according to Stolar "Sega doesn't need PS1 ports, we need from-the-ground-up development titles for the new Dreamcast". EA was burned by Stolar because he LIED to them claiming Sega had no interest in PS1 ports. EA instead followed the money and waited for the PlayStation 2 to be unveiled. Thanks Asstard. Thanks for letting Madden,NBA Streetz, SSX remain PlayStation exclusives.
Stolar's decision to kill Saturn in America in April 1998 despite the fact that it was improving and selling better resulted in a $340 million loss for SEGA of America, 200 layoffs, and added an additional $40 million operating loss to SEGA Enterprises 1998 Fiscal as well as cut off all needed revenue and potential profit that could have been made.
Throughout 1998, Stolar nearly ALIENATED 3rd party relations for Dreamcast, Capcom and Namco almost skipped support after Stolar holtly told them to give up on Saturn and stop supporting it.(X-MEN VS Street Fighter didn't get localized on Saturn because of this) Soichiro Irimajiri decided to finally take action and stop Stolar's destruction by demoting him and promoting Sega Marketing Director Naoya Tsurumi(Who's also both the Lead Architect of Dreamcast and currently SEGA Holdings,Co,Ltd's Vice President and COO) to Sega of America's CEO, Irimajiri instead appointed himself COO of SEGA Enterprises.
Stolar claims he helped craft the successful launch and marketing campaign of Dreamcast, ALL of this is a bald face LIE.
Stolar was secretly dismissed from his Job as COO by Irimajiri in March 1999. Instead, it was Tsurumi that took the reigns and hired the late Charles Bellfield of Sega Europe as the VP of Marketing and Sale. Stolar didn't have shit to do with Dreamcast's successful run in the US or its launch,marketing and 3rd party relations. That was all Naoya Tsurumi,Charles Bellfield and Neal Robinson Lead Marketing and Sales Manager.
Stolar was FINALLY officially terminated from SEGA at E3 1999 in June. 2 Years to the day he proclaimed "The Saturn is not our future". He was replaced by Reebok Marketing Director Peter Moore. Go Riddance.
And now 10 facts about Bernie Stolar:
1. He was formerly Sony Computer Entertainment's Marketing Director in America and was responsible for the horrid "Polygon Man" mascot who was dropped in 1996 for the successful "Crash Bandicoot.
2. He claimed responsibility for Sony's successful US launch of PlayStation in 1995 and boasted it as being the most successful console launch in US history. This claim is exaggerated, PS1's Saturday September 9,1995 launch sold 100,000 units its first 5 days. The Dreamcast sold twice that amount 4 years later in a single day. PS1's launch was moderately successful.
3. He immediately KILLED Sega CD and Sega Channel after joining Sega of America in June 1996. Stolar cut off resources for both and quote claimed "The 16-bit market is dying".
4. Stolar CANNED Both Sonic Xtreme AND Sonic Pool/Stadium for Saturn. Stolar may not have made the call to cancel the doomed,ill fated 32X to Saturn project "Sonic Xtreme"(Mike Wallis of Sega Technical Institute did), but the Asshole DID cancel another little known project that was being developed on the ground up for Saturn called "Sonic Pool/Sonic Stadium" at STI, all because it was developed from the ground up on Saturn hardware. Instead, he ported 3DBlast to the Saturn from Genesis.
5. He DESPISED the Saturn and had a personal vendetta against it. Even in 2003 he stated on G4 "In my opinion, the Saturn was a game system that should have never been released. It was too hard to program. Too convoluted to work with. And had too many shoddy games. I'm personally glad it failed in America". This hyperbolic bull is from his own mouth.
6. He almost single handedly killed all software support for Dreamcast. Alienating EA and nearly causing ALL 3rd party partners to skip the Dreamcast by telling them, they have to use the Black Belt prototype(at the time, most console game developers knew little about PC development) and would not be given SDKs until January 1999. This is why SOJ stepped in, they sent out SDKs in September 1998 using the NAOMI/Katana design. SEGA of Japan chose this design and chipset because they were determined to provide partners with a userfriendly,easy to program and develop for piece of architecture. This is the reason why I think Katana was a fine pick. Naoya Tsurumi knew what he was doing and what he was thinking. It's no surprise he's currently Haijime Satomi's Right Hand Man.
7. Stolar intentionally sabotaged the Saturn in the US through various methods: Refusing to offer and license US NTSC development kits to developers and publishers(who were forced to order Japanese ones); Limiting and forcing developers to use underpowered kits which made it difficult for most developers to use both Saturn's SH-2 Aurora processors; Using shoddy,delicate long CD jewel cases for Saturn CD games instead of standard CD cases like PlayStation and Japanese Saturn; UNDERMARKETING Saturn as a niche game console instead of a hardcore game console; REFUSED to license various Saturn expansion technology like the 1MB RAM and 4 MB RAM carts to the US; Encouraging US developers and publishers to skip Saturn for PlayStation calling the Saturn, "too difficult, and too hard to program"; delaying,delaying and delaying Saturn title release dates time after time to piss of Saturn owners and consumers; Boldly declaring at E3 1997 in Atlanta,GA "The Sega Saturn is NOT our future" and doubling down on that statement by decreeing that Saturn would be discontinued in US markets by Spring 1998. KILLING Saturn in America BEHIND the backs of Nakayama and Irimajiri; Hotly telling collectors of its final game releases to "Save your breath".
8. Encouraged game magazines to ignore Saturn and reviewing Saturn games by refusing to let Sega of America send Saturn games to magazines like EGM,GamePro and Ultra Gameplayers.
9. Was the reason why Dreamcast press in America was SO NEGATIVE. You need to understand that the tide changed for Dreamcast in America after he was officially fired from SEGA in June 1999. Stolar was mostly lying to the press claiming "It's Thinking" the Internet ads, Assault Mobile Trailers with Dreamcast and TV Teasers were all his idea. NONE of it was. Only the idea to launch Dreamcast on September 9th was. Again, Naoya Tsurumi,Charles Bellfield(R.I.P.) and Neal Robinson were behind the immense success of Dreamcast in America. When Stolar was officially let go, The industry celebrated his firing. They saw him as an enemy and threat to gaming.
10. Stolar singlehandedly destroyed and desecrated all of the HARD work and good fortune of Sega of America in just 2 years time. Everything Kalinske had worked hard and built during 1992-1995 was wrecked by Stolar in just 24 months(1996-1998).
We should be glad he left gaming. Hell, he's toxic waste to anyone.
Isao "Baka" Okawa.
So much misinformation. So much fallacies, so many biased lies and myths about this man. Why do people credit this man when he did absolutely NOTHING for SEGA and instead is the man who single handily KILLED the Dreamcast and tore out the hearts of gamers around the world and 22 million SEGA fans across the world while tainting the legacy of Hayao Nakayama and forced Peter Moore, the "Dreamcast Man" who dearly and deeply loves the console with all of his heart who was on his way to fixing and repairing Sega of America by RIGHTING all the wrongs done by Stolar to pull the plug on a system emotionally he knew had a chance?
Okawa was a Blackhearted Villain. A "Wolf and Sheep's Clothing" Everything you hear so great about this man is a lie. He contributed nothing to SEGA and didn't do shit for them. If anything, had he not passed away on March 16,2001, Okawa would have certainly drove SEGA into the ground. I highly doubt SEGA would have been in business by 2006. Considering the fact that when Okawa took over Nakayama's post in June 2000 he "Wanted Sega Corporation,Inc to become like NEC, by making gaming secondary and non gaming a main business priority". Okawa was Anti gamer and was willing to restructure Sega into a company that had little if nothing to do with gaming.
There's another myth that Okawa played crucial roles in console development and partly funded Dreamcast. WRONG. Okawa was the CEO of CSK Enterprises/CSK Holdings, the parent company of SEGA Enterprises,Ltd. All they did was FUND and Finance SEGA. They also were fully responsible for all investments on SEGA as well. So mishaps like GameWorks, rushing out Dreamcast in Japan for Holiday 1998 for Okawa's idea and fault. Not Nakayama's.
Okawa was a personal friend of David Rosen, but what's clear is that he didn't know video or Arcade gaming, so in 1983 Rosen appointed Hayao Nakayama as the new Chief Executive Officer of SEGA Enterprises,Ltd in Japan. Instead he placed Okawa in charge of financing the Holdings Group CSK.
Okawa, again was not a gamer guy. In fact after the North America Market Crash of 1984, he expressed extreme skepticism investing in the West. He's the reason why SG-1000 never made it Stateside(Rosen and Nakayama were considering launching SG-1000 overseas in '84) Okawa also disliked the idea of SEGA handling distribution of Arcade games and Machines in North America, he also refused to invest in opening up an American division of SEGA. But Rosen begged to differ.(So all those calling this prick a hero, He DIDN'T even WANT Sega to have presence here in America).
Okawa is also the reason SEGA had little to no 3rd party software support even in Japan during the 80s. CSK did not want to fund SDKs(Mark III was the first and only Sega console that did not have a licensed Software Development Kit) so SEGA instead would license 3rd party titles themselves and recode them
Okawa also prevented growth of SEGA Enterprises,Ltd. Alot of why the reason the company stayed small is because CSK often blocked joint venture deals and certain investments. Most of the reason why certain Arcade machines weren't exported to the States is because of Okawa.
In 1994,1997 and 2000. There were Three attempts from Pioneer,JVC and Toshiba to become SEGA's new Parent Company via M&A(Merger and Acquisition)and each time, Isao Okawa blocked it. In March '94, Pioneer Corporation and Company President Seiya Matsumoto, offered 44 Billion Yen($4 billion) to Acquire SEGA Enterprises from CSK, Okawa hotly refused the offer.
In March 1997, Victor Company of Japan and its Parent Matsushita Electronics offered CSK 50 Billion Yen($5 billion) to buy the now declining Sega from them, Okawa once again, refused.
And in March of 2000, Soichiro Irimajiri was secretly in talks with both Toshiba Corporation(willing to plunk down large bids to acquire SEGA) and Mircosoft,(Bill Gates wanted to help and offered SEGA a $5 billion dollar loan to keep Dreamcast funded and alive) to figure out a way to keep Dreamcast and SEGA financed, but as soon as he took over,Isao Okawa killed all of these plans,cancelled these talks, BLOCKED Toshiba and then shuttered all of SEGA Video gaming hardware divisions including its R&D Dept Sega Away 27
Okawa and CSK were also the ones solely responsible for the disastrous GameWorks investment in 1996.
Okawa forced Dreamcast to be rushed out to the Japanese market in November 1998. Nakayama and Irimajiri targeted at Q1 1999 release, but Okawa told them that CSK needed to meet its March 1999 target and that Q1 was "too late and would result in a massive operating loss"
Okawa was ALREADY thinking away from Video Gaming and wanted SEGA to scrap Saturn and go software only as early as 1994! When Sony PlayStation was unveiled and announced in February 1994, Okawa told everyone on the SEGA chair that "You cannot compete against a large corporation, They simply have too much influence and money, You might as well just pack it up, Sega. Saturn is going to lose soundly to this new PS-X. There's other more profitable markets". So to all those claiming he funded the Dreamcast and donated money to save the company, Isao Okawa was ready to just give up and Quit before the Saturn was even out and during the SAME damn time, that Sega of America was commercially successful with Genesis.
Okawa killed the Dreamcast. NOT Peter Moore. Never let Moore blame himself. He didn't pull the plug, Okawa did. Okawa had already ordered SEGA to pack it up as a hardware company during the Summer of 2000. He not only killed the plan to release the DVD add on and Zip Drive add ons as well as the Dreamcast Camera(Sony stole the PlayStation Eye Camera directly from SEGA) he gave orders to Moore to "Sega of America, you guys handle Dreamcast globally yourselfs. We're done here in Japan(basically lying because Dreamcast was still sold in Japan until 2004) if you can't make Dreamcast a massive seller even more than PlayStation 2, we'll pull the plug." Basically Okawa gave Moore an unrealistic projection. Moore states that around February 2001, they were selling 100,000 Dreamcasts a week in America. Basically, Dreamcast was selling 500k a month. Selling impressively. But Okawa didn't like that since DC's Japanese sales were lackluster 50k a week(WAY higher than PS4 in Japan right now). Odd because Okawa died 6 weeks after announcing he was pulling the plug. He had only been in charge for 7 months. CSK finally let go of SEGA in June 2003, selling its assets off to Sammy Corporation and its President Haijime Satomi, who merged SEGA Corporation,Inc and Sammy Together in March 2004. Satomi vowed to pull the company out of the mire and revitalize it, Satomi also promised to help climb them out of the $3 billion debt Okawa left them(Which he did, and in August 2010, Satomi sold off all of Sammy's shares to SEGA, basically absorbing them into SEGA,)
Ten Facts about Isao Okawa.
1. He was NOT CEO of SEGA until 2000. And was only CEO for 7 months in which he dissolved SEGA's home consumer division and had attempted to sell off its Amusement Machines Business when he died from a Heart Attack in March 2001.
2. Isao Okawa HATED video gaming like Jack Tremiel. In 1983, CSK was extremely interested in entering the Semi Conductor market and Okawa tried to argue against the SG-1000, but lost to SEGA Founder David Rosen and NEW CEO Hayao Nakayama. Okawa also hated Americans, and was even more Xenophobic than even Nakayama.
3.Okawa hated Tom Kalinske. He was actually the one that almost got the Chairboard to vote down the idea of Sonic The Hedgehog being bundled with the Genesis/Mega Drive, Nakayama was the one who broke the tie vote and allowed history to be made. Okawa was also the main reason Nakayama and Kalinske never got along and is also one of the reason why SEGA of Japan and SEGA of America never saw eye to eye with each other.
4. Okawa wanted SEGA to pull out of the hardware business before Saturn. By late 1993, Okawa was extremely interested in Sega becoming more of a Parlor vendor and Arcade giant than consoles. He told people in the Chairboard to can Saturn and pack it up as a home consumer brand. He also expressed his disdain for "Our company's success being credited to America". Okawa also was extremely reluctant to fund Aurora and also wanted SEGA to put the plug on its 16-bit lines overseas.
5. Okawa secretly attempted to license Sega titles to M2 behind everyone's backs. He also attempted to start development on several projects for Sony PlayStation. CSI attempted to obtain licensing rights to Sega IPs.
6. Hayao Nakayama and SEGA had to beg Okawa to allow them to fund and start Joypolis. Okawa told them he feared the investment would be too expensive and problematic. The reason why Joypolis didn't operate outside of Yokohama,Japan until the late 1990s is because of Okawa.
7. During the 80s, Okawa and CSK assisted SEGA in R&D and funding, but frequently tried to find alternative non gaming markets and business for them to invest in.
8. Okawa invested in GameWorks chain in 1996 by secretly striking deals with Planet Hollywood,DreamWorks and Universal. Okawa was so determined to find a large market that was more profitable than gaming so that he could convince Sega to move away from it, he would often make misguided investments. Most of the budget and funding that was originally intended for Project Dural, a new 6th Generation home console project that was being managed at Sega Away by Naoya Tsurumi, was wasted on GameWorks. $2 billion dollars thrown all away on a failed Chain.
9. OKAWA ordered Dreamcast to be launched in Christmas 1998. Not Irimajiri. He threatened to force SEGA to post a Quarterly Operating Loss if Irimajiri and Nakayama did not comply with the group's orders. Both men knew DC would be much more viable missing Christmas and hitting retailers during First Quarter 1999. DC's lackluster Japanese performance is solely Okawa's fault.
10. Again, Isao Okawa pulled the plug on Dreamcast. NOT Peter Moore. It was his first order of business when he took over as CEO in June 2000. It's clear that Okawa had been waiting for the day for Nakayama and Irimajiri to leave SEGA. He told the Chairboard that "If you keep going, you'll fail. We've tried over and over and can't succeed. We must just call it a day. Sometimes you got to leave well enough alone". Now I'd like to let everyone know is that EVERYBODY at Sega was against killing Dreamcast. When Irimajiri left, everyone prayed and kept their fingers crossed Okawa wouldn't do what they suspected he was going to do. But Alas, Okawa wanted his way even STUPIDLY turning down an offer from Bill Gates to give SEGA a $5 billion loan out of Microsoft's OWN pocket to keep Dreamcast alive in which SEGA was to pay off by 2010.
Okawa pulling the plug on Dreamcast was NOT to save the company, and was not because of the financial rut Sega was in. It was ALL for his own selfish reasons. Okawa's future of Sega was "Video Gaming Should be Secondary to our Company" he liked NEC's approach and wanted Sega to go that route. There was even an opportunity for SEGA to become a niche hardware company like SNK for a few years, but Okawa said no. Okawa killed DC and SEGA's hardware division because he hated Video Games and was jealous of Sega of America. And that "$600 million debt forgiven" is peanuts. Okawa died leaving Sega with $3 billion dollars worth of debt(In which he piled on by liquidating Dreamcast in Japan).
I have no respect for this man. He wasn't just a "Quitter" he was a selfish,xenophobic,megalomaniac who wanted SEGA to be what HE wanted and nobody else. I'm almost certain Okawa would have certainly killed SEGA turning them into a completely non gaming company had he lived. In looking at the Scenario of had Pioneer brought SEGA from CSK in 1994, I'm certain that Saturn would have succeeded and SEGA probably would have been able to ride out the Arcade Hurricane Collapse of the mid 90s since Pioneer would have helped expand SEGA's presence in Theme Parks and Hotel Resorts keeping Arcade Operating sales afloat. Pioneer also would have keep Tom Kalinske behaving and prevented him from overriding SEGA of Japan's authority. Thus, 32X would have likely been scrapped. I also believe, Pioneer's Anime brand would have stayed strong as well.
Had JVC brought SEGA in 1997 from CSK? DVD would have gone to JVC, Dreamcast would have been stronger,mass produced,had 2nd party SKUs from JVC,Hitachi and Toshiba, and Sony would have LOST DVD Video licensing, which would have crippled the PS2. JVC also would have given Dreamcast more leway into the Entertainment field market.
Had Toshiba brought SEGA in 2000?Dreamcast would have lived. SEGA would have had ALL 3rd party support and developers and publishers on their side would have moved away from PS2 because of its extemely difficult and complex programming. HD-DVD would have beaten Blu Ray. Anime's North American market boom of the early/mid 2000s would have been 3X times bigger. GameCube/Stargate would have been in 3rd place. Sony would have failed with PS2. By forcing SEGA out of the hardware business, Isao Okawa handed Sony the 6th Generation on a Platter. Stupid Ass(Kuso No Baka.)
Bernie Stolar & Isao Okawa. Dumb and Dumber. And may they be forever known as such.
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