24 Facts About Sonic Team

Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No 2 division.

Sonic Team is best known for the long-running Sonic the Hedgehog series and games such as Nights into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online.

The next Sonic Team games were developed by Naka and Yasuhara in America at Sega Technical Institute, while Ohshima worked on Sonic Team CD in Japan.

Sonic Team met artist Naoto Ohshima while working on the game.

Ohshima designed a blue hedgehog named Sonic Team, who was inserted into a prototype game created by Naka.

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The Sonic Team design was refined to be less aggressive and appeal to a wider audience before the division began development on their platform game Sonic Team the Hedgehog.

Sonic Team was placed in charge of Sega's Consumer Development Department 3, known as CS3.

The Dreamcast was seen as opportunity for Sonic Team to revisit the Sonic series, which had stalled in recent years.

Sonic Team was originally creating a fully 3D Sonic game for the Saturn, but development moved to the Dreamcast to align with Sega's plans.

The game became Sonic Team Adventure, launched in 1998, which became the bestselling Dreamcast game.

In 1999, shortly after the release of Sonic Adventure, twelve Sonic Team members relocated to San Francisco to establish Sonic Team USA, while others remained in Japan.

Sonic Team achieved success in the arcade game market in 1999 with the launch of rhythm game Samba de Amigo, released the following year for the Dreamcast.

In 2000, Sonic Team launched the role-playing game Phantasy Star Online to critical and commercial success.

Sonic Team left Sonic Team during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog, released as part of the 15-year anniversary of the Sonic franchise.

In 2015, Iizuka recognized in an interview with Polygon that Sonic Team had prioritized shipping games over quality, and had not had enough involvement in later third-party Sonic games, such as Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

Sonic Team hoped the Sonic Team logo would stand as a "mark of quality"; he planned to release quality games and expand the Sonic brand, while retaining the modern Sonic design.

Sonic Team Runners received mixed reviews and was unprofitable, resulting in its discontinuation a year later.

In 2017, Sonic Team developed and released Sonic Forces, and oversaw the development of Sonic Mania by Christian Whitehead.

At SXSW in March 2019, Iizuka confirmed Sonic Team was working on a new Sonic game, which became Sonic Frontiers.

Sonic Team USA took a different approach with Heroes from the Sonic Adventure games, focusing on gameplay more similar to the Genesis games to which even casual gamers could adapt.

In 2008, Sega Studios USA merged with Sonic Team, making Iizuka the head of Sonic Team and a vice president of product development for Sega.

Sonic Team has developed a number of video games, with many of them becoming bestsellers.

Iizuka has said Sonic Team would be open to developing a third Nights game or a sequel to Knuckles' Chaotix, if Sega were to commission them.

Sega and Sonic Team have been criticized for their handling of Sonic the Hedgehog after the beginning of the 3D era of video games.