Sonic Team

Sonic Team is a developer.

Sonic Team Webpage

A Japanese development studio with a branch in the United States (San Francisco), Sonic Team operates under Sega. Sonic Team focuses primarily on the development of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, but also has a number of other projects in its portfolio, including the RPG series Phantasy Star .

History of Sonic Team

The studio dates back to 1984, when Yuji Naka began working at Sega. While developing his first projects, including Phantasy Star, he met Naoto Ohshima. In the late 1980s, the duo designed Sonic, intended as a response to Nintendo's Mario, becoming the mascot for Sega consoles. This blue hedgehog, capable of running at supersonic speeds, debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 1991 for the Sega Mega Drive. The game achieved both artistic and commercial success.

From then on, Naka and Ohshima's team was to be unofficially known as Sonic Team, and its activities were to focus primarily on developing the franchise. However, the duo split up. Ohshima remained in Japan, developing Sonic CD, while Naka moved to the United States to lead the team that delivered Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The developers reunited in 1994, when Naka returned to Japan.

Over time, Sonic Team became the studio's official name. However, over the years, it also began experimenting with projects unrelated to Sonic. The last major game for a Sega's console was Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. As that platform was a commercial failure, the brand had to open up to new platforms.

Structural changes and the search for a new path

In 1999, Sonic Team USA was established, and Naoto Ohshima left the studio's Japanese branch. The year 2000 brought structural changes within the company, as a result of which Sonic Team became a separate company (SonicTeam Ltd.), with Yuji Naka as CEO; Sonic Team USA was transformed into a subsidiary. This status remained until 2004, when Sega and Sammy Corporation merged. At that time, Sonic Team became Sega's R&D department, and Sonic Team USA was renamed Sega Studios USA.

While Sonic's two-dimensional adventures were artistically and commercially successful, the supersonic hedgehog didn't fare as well in three-dimensional environments. Furthermore, developers tried to create as many games featuring him as possible, at the expense of quality. In 2006, Naka left the studio and founded his own. In 2008, Sega Studios USA returned to the Japanese branch of Sonic Team.

After 2010, the series began to improve, and while there were plenty of flops, Sonic gradually regained his former glory, and with it, the team itself.

Games created by Sonic Team

Sonic Team's main focus are the games featuring the blue hedgehog. They are mainly 2D and 3D platformers, but the studio has also developed racing games.

However, over the years, the studio's portfolio has expanded to include other projects, such as the aforementioned Phantasy Star (which spawned another major franchise), ChuChu Rocket!, Puyo Puyo, and NiGHTS Into Dreams.