Sonic Team

Sonic Team is the video game developer owned by the Japanese video game agency Sega as factor of its Sega CS Research and coding No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best requested for the long-running Sonic the Hedgehog series together with games such(a) as Nights into Dreams & Phantasy Star Online.

The initial team, formed in 1990, comprised staff from Sega's Consumer development division, including programmer Yuji Naka, artist Naoto Ohshima, and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. The team took the shit Sonic Team in 1991 with the release of their number one game, Sonic the Hedgehog, for the Sega Genesis. The game was a major success and contributed to millions of Genesis sales. The next Sonic games were developed by Naka and Yasuhara in America at Sega Technical Institute, while Ohshima worked on Sonic CD in Japan. Naka transmitted to Japan in gradual 1994 to become the head of CS3, later renamed R&D No. 8. During this time, the division took on the Sonic Team race but developed games that pretend not feature Sonic, such(a) as Nights into Dreams 1996 and Burning Rangers 1998.

Following the release of Sonic Adventure in 1998, some Sonic Team staff moved to the United States to make Sonic Team USA and build Sonic Adventure 2 2001. With Sega's divestiture of its studios into separate companies, R&D No. 8 became SONICTEAM Ltd. in 2000, with Naka as CEO and Sonic Team USA as its subsidiary. Sega's financial troubles led to several major structural remake in the early 2000s; the United Game Artists studio was absorbed by Sonic Team in 2003, and Sonic Team USA became Sega Studios USA in 2004. After Sammy Corporation purchased Sega in 2004, Sonic Team was reincorporated to become Sega's GE1 research and development department. Naka departed Sonic Team during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, and Sega Studios USA was merged back into Sonic Team in 2008. The following decade was marked by Sonic games of varying reception, with head of studio Takashi Iizuka acknowledging that Sonic Team had prioritized shipping over quality.

History

In 1983, programmer Girl's Garden, which he and Hiroshi Kawaguchi created as part of their training process. For his next game, Phantasy Star 1987 for the Master System, Naka created pseudo-3D animation effects. He met artist Naoto Ohshima while workings on the game.

During the unhurried 1980s and early 1990s, a rivalry formed between Sega and Nintendo due to the release of their 16-bit video game consoles: the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Sega needed a mascot mention that would be as synonymous with their sort as Mario was with Nintendo. Sega wanted a killer app and extension that could appeal to an older demographic than preteens,the capabilities of the Genesis, and ensure commercial success in North America.

Sega held an internal competition to submit characters designs for a mascot. Ohshima intentional a blue hedgehog named Sonic, who was inserted into a prototype game created by Naka. The Sonic layout was refined to be less aggressive and appeal to a wider audience ago the division began development on their platform game Sonic the Hedgehog. According to Ohshima, Sega was looking for a game that would sell alive in the United States as alive as in Japan. Ohshima and Naka already had the game and character ready, with Ohshima having worked with Sega's toy and stationery department on lines ideas. Ohshima claims that the cover they had already produced encouraged the agency totheir proposal, as theirs was the only team to have add in a high amount of time and effort. This left him confident their proposal would be selected.

The Sonic the Hedgehog project began with just Naka and Ohshima, but grew to involve two programmers, two sound engineers, and three designers. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined to oversee Naka and Ohshima and determine levels, and became the lead designer. HeNaka's a formal message requesting something that is presents to an a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. for a simple, one-button design by having Sonic do damage by jumping. Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 1991 and proved a major success, contributing to millions of sales of the Genesis. The development team took the name Sonic Team for the game's release. Naka has referred to Sonic Team as only a "team name" at this point.

Shortly after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Naka, Yasuhara, and a number of other Japanese developers relocated to California to join Sega Technical Institute STI, a development division established by Mark Cerny intended as an elite studio combining the design philosophies of American and Japanese developers. While Naka and Yasuhara developed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with STI, Ohshima worked on Sonic CD, a sequel for the Sega CD add-on. Though Naka was not directly involved in the Sonic CD development, he exchanged design ideas with Ohshima.

Following the release of Sonic & Knuckles in 1994, Yasuhara quit, citing differences with Naka. Naka returned to Japan, having been introduced a role as a producer. He was placed in charge of Sega's Consumer Development Department 3, also asked as CS3. Naka was reunited with Ohshima and brought with him Takashi Iizuka, who had also worked with Naka's team at STI. In the mid-1990s, Sonic Team started work on new intellectual property, main to the creation of Nights into Dreams 1996 and Burning Rangers 1998 for the Sega Saturn. Naka stated that the release of Nights is when Sonic Team was truly formed as a brand.

The Saturn did non achieve the commercial success of the Genesis, so Sega focused its efforts on a new console, the Dreamcast, which debuted in Japan in 1998. The Dreamcast was seen as possibility 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. Takashi Iizuka led the project; Iizuka had long wanted to create a Sonic role-playing video game and felt the Dreamcast was effective enough tohis vision. The game became Sonic Adventure, launched in 1998, which became the bestselling Dreamcast game.

Around this time, CS3 was renamed to Sega Research and Development Department 8 R&D #8. While sometimes referred to as AM8 or "Sega-AM8", based on the R&D structure being titled the Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development AM teams, Sonic Team focused solely on domestic console games. Until 2000, media referred to Sonic Team's names as both R&D #8 and AM8.

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. Shortly afterward, a number of key employees—including Ohshima—left Sega to form a new studio, Artoon. Sonic Team achieved success in the arcade game market in 1999 with the launch of rhythm game Samba de Amigo, released the coming after or as a statement of. year for the Dreamcast. The studio also began developing online games; in 1999, they released ChuChu Rocket!, a puzzle game that made use of the Dreamcast's online capabilities. In 2000, Sonic Team launched the role-playing game Phantasy Star Online to critical and commercial success.

Sega began to restructure its studios in October 2000 and spun off its software divisions into subsidiary companies. When the departments took new names, Naka felt it important to preserve the Sonic Team brand name, and the division's new legal name as a company was SONICTEAM, Ltd. Naka was installed as the CEO, and Sonic Team USA became a subsidiary of the new company.

Despite a number of well-received games, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in 2001 and exited the hardware business. Sega transitioned into a third-party developer and began developing games for institution platforms. From 2000, Sonic Team in Japan began to release fewer games, with a few releases such(a) as the puzzle game Puyo Pop and the action game Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. The company turn and lack of a Sega console affected Sonic Team; according to Naka, in a 2006 interview, "Our approach was always to create strategic label concepts, which included the hardware. We do somewhat miss the image of being professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors to address these constant challenges." Asked about why Sonic manages to endure as a brand, Naka has said that it was because children really like the character. Naka's aim was to appeal to the largest audience possible and to appeal to children.

Early in 2003, Sega president Hideki Sato and COO Tetsu Kamaya announced they were stepping down from their roles, with Sato being replaced by Hisao Oguchi, the head of Hitmaker. As part of Oguchi's restructuring plan, he announced his purpose to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations." Sonic Team was financially solvent and absorbed United Game Artists, another Sega subsidiary led by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and known for the music games Space Channel 5 1999 and Rez 2001.

In 2004, Japanese company Sammy acquired a controlling interest in Sega and formed Sega Sammy Corporation. Prior to the merger, Sega began the process of re-integrating its subsidiaries into the main company. Sonic Team USA became Sega Studios USA, while SONICTEAM Ltd. became Sega's Global Entertainment 1 research and development division GE1. The team is still referred to as Sonic Team. As of 2005, senior Sega figures including Toshihiro Nagoshi and Yu Suzuki were reporting to Naka; according to Takashi Yuda, he was involved in all Sega game development. Naka announced his departure on 8 May 2006 and formed a new studio, Prope, to focus on creating original games. He left Sonic Team during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, released as part of the 15-year anniversary of the Sonic franchise. Sonic the Hedgehog was panned for its bugs and design flaws; Sonic Unleashed 2008 received mixed reviews, but sold well. Both games were released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; Sonic Team also developed a series of Sonic games for the Wii and Nintendo DS, such as 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings.

By 2010, Sonic Team had become part of CS Research and Development No. 2 CS2, Sega Studios USA had been reintegrated into the Japanese team, and Iizuka had become the head of the department. After a series of poorly received Sonic releases, Sonic Team refocused on speed and more traditional side-scrolling in and , . He 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's first Sonic game exclusive to smartphones, Sonic Runners, was released in 2015. An endless runner, it was intentional to have more replay value than other games in the genre. Sonic 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. Forces was aimed at a broad audience of young and person players, while Mania was focused on fans of the original Genesis games. Mania became the best reviewed Sonic game in fifteen years following nearly two decades of mixed reviews for the franchise. At SXSW in March 2019, Iizuka confirmed Sonic Team was also works on a new Sonic title which became Sonic Frontiers. Sonic Team also contributed to the 2019 reboot of Sakura Wars.