Before I get going, here's something that I found a little humorous..

Howard Lincoln: "Obviously one way of maintaining quality is to not have third party publishing, but if you do that you eliminate the Acclaims at the same time as you eliminate the companies that maybe haven't done such a great job."

Anyhow, I've been reading all the Bernie Stolar bashing, and for the most part, I can't say I disagree. However, when I see so much unanimity on an issue, my mind always wants to look at the other side of the argument.

The common perspective that Stolar did nothing to help the Saturn is entirely justified and absolutely true, so far as I can tell. It's also true that he was part of (if not most of) the reason that Working Designs has moved over to Playstation development and said "no more Sega for us"

To go one step further and discuss some of Stolar's problems at Sony, I think everyone has overlooked the long wait for approval that proven winner, Command and Conquer, faced prior to its release. It was a blockbuster PC hit, and regardless of what anyone thinks of it, it was bound to sell a good number of copies. It seemed like Sony was trying to build as many walls as possible to PREVENT this game from coming out.

However, that said, the PlayStation launch was incredibly successful, and it seems agreed upon that Stolar was part of that. Sony had third parties on board, and a good deal of software at its launch, and by the end of that first year in the US, it was already apparent that it was Sega who would have to play catch up despite an early launch.

As for his comments on the Saturn as not being Sega's future, while perhaps ill-advised, you have to admit they were honest. You may not sympathise with Stolar, but by the time he was hired, the only thing that could have saved Sega in America was some form of Saturn upgrade, or a very expensive media campaign and/or big, though not WalMart-esque, price cuts (my opinion only, but a realistic one, I think).

In the meantime, through all this criticism, a lot of positive things have been coming through the grapevine about Sega. The media is buzzing about the new system (which I sure hope will be released this X-mas, although that's probably wishful thinking). Word is that the upcoming PowerVR hardware is very impressive, and probably on par with Voodoo2, possibly better. (At the very least, it will offer much better price/performance from all indications).

But most importantly, major third parties seem to be jumping on board for Katana development. Whether or not this has anything to do with Stolar or not isn't completely clear--but third party outlook so far is very good, much like it was for Playstation. Rumors about the ease of programming on the new system are also floating around, and the idea of portability from PC to Katana seems very real. If games do become very portable, we will be able to see how well Stolar does, since a large portion of PC development takes place in the States, so SOA would be wooing PC developers.

I won't deny that Stolar let the Saturn drop and made minimal or non-existent efforts to save it. However, given the buzz on Katana, I'm willing to suspend judgment on him until we see how the new system fares. To say he's useless based on his track record with Sega is probably a little unfair.

So from here, the jury is out.. I'm cautiously optimistic, and I'm wondering if Bernie will disappoint. But I don't think I can judge that until the Katana is released. For those of you who believe that Sony took off because Stolar left, look again... I don't think that's the case at all.