Sega CS R&D Dept. No. 2, which operates as Sonic Team, is a Japanese video game company owned by Sega. Sonic Team is most famous for creating the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Some games made by Sonic Team, such as the first Sonic games and Nights into Dreams (1996), are widely regarded as some of the best video games ever created.
The team was formed in 1990 and included Sega developers such as programmer Yuji Naka, artist Naoto Ohshima, and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. In 1991, the team adopted the name Sonic Team with the release of their first game, Sonic the Hedgehog, for the Sega Genesis. This game was very successful and helped sell millions of Sega Genesis consoles. Later Sonic games were made by Naka and Yasuhara in the United States at Sega Technical Institute, while Ohshima worked on Sonic CD in Japan at CS3. In 1994, Naka returned to Japan to lead CS3, which was later renamed R&D No. 8. During this time, the division used the Sonic Team name but created games that did not include Sonic, such as Nights into Dreams (1996) and Burning Rangers (1998).
After the release of Sonic Adventure in 1998, some Sonic Team members moved to the United States to form Sonic Team USA and develop Sonic Adventure 2 (2001). When Sega sold its studios to separate companies, R&D No. 8 became SONICTEAM Ltd. in 2000, with Naka as its CEO and Sonic Team USA as a part of it. Sega’s financial problems led to major changes in the early 2000s. In 2003, the United Game Artists studio was absorbed by Sonic Team, and in 2004, Sonic Team USA became Sega Studios USA.
In 2004, Sammy Corporation bought Sega, and Sonic Team became Sega’s GE1 research and development department. Naka left Sega during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and Sega Studios USA was merged back into Sonic Team in 2008. The following decade included Sonic games with mixed reception, and Takashi Iizuka, head of the studio, admitted that Sonic Team had focused more on releasing games quickly than on ensuring high quality.
History
In 1984, programmer Yuji Naka was hired by Sega's Consumer Development division. His first project was a game called Girl's Garden, which he and Hiroshi Kawaguchi created as part of their training. For his next game, Phantasy Star (1987) for the Master System, Naka used fake 3D effects. He met artist Naoto Ohshima while working on this game.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sega and Nintendo became rivals after they released their 16-bit consoles: the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Sega needed a mascot character as famous as Mario was for Nintendo. They wanted a game and character that would attract older players, show the Genesis's power, and help sell the console in North America.
Sega held a competition to design a mascot. Ohshima created a blue hedgehog named Sonic, who was added to a game prototype made by Naka. The Sonic design was changed to be less aggressive and appeal to more people before the team started making Sonic the Hedgehog. Ohshima said Sega wanted a game that would sell well in the United States and Japan. Ohshima and Naka already had the game and character ready, and their hard work helped Sega choose their proposal.
The Sonic the Hedgehog project began with Naka and Ohshima, but later included two programmers, two sound engineers, and three designers. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined to help with level design and became the lead designer. He made Sonic attack enemies by jumping, which satisfied Naka's request for a simple one-button control. Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 1991 and became very popular, helping sell millions of Genesis consoles. The team used the name "Sonic Team" for the game's release. Naka said this was just a team name, as other games from the division did not use it.
After Sonic the Hedgehog was released, Naka, Yasuhara, and other Japanese developers moved to California to join Sega Technical Institute (STI), a team created by Mark Cerny to combine American and Japanese game design ideas. While Naka and Yasuhara worked on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at STI, Ohshima made Sonic CD, a prequel for the Sega CD add-on. Naka was not directly involved in Sonic CD, but he shared design ideas with Ohshima.
After Sonic & Knuckles was released in 1994, Naka returned to Japan as a producer. He led Sega's Consumer Development Department 3, also called CS3. He reunited with Ohshima and brought in Takashi Iizuka, who had worked with Naka's team at STI. In the mid-1990s, Sonic Team made new games, including Nights into Dreams (1996) and Burning Rangers (1998) for the Sega Saturn. Naka said Nights into Dreams was when Sonic Team became a recognized brand.
Few Sonic games were made for the Saturn. Since Sonic Team was working on Nights into Dreams, they hired Traveller's Tales, a British studio, to develop Sonic 3D Blast (1996), the last Genesis Sonic game. Sonic Team made bonus levels for a Saturn version of the game instead of the canceled Sonic X-treme. Yasuhara moved to London to help develop Sonic R (1997), a racing game made by Sonic Team and Traveller's Tales. The only other Saturn Sonic game was Samba de Amigo (1997), a rhythm game that also used the Saturn's 3D features.
The Sega Saturn was not successful, and some writers said it lacked a major Sonic game. Sega shifted focus to the Dreamcast, which launched in Japan in 1998. Sonic Team saw the Dreamcast as a chance to return to the Sonic series. They had started a 3D Sonic game for the Saturn but moved it to the Dreamcast. Iizuka led the project and wanted to make a Sonic role-playing game, which he believed the Dreamcast could handle. The game became Sonic Adventure (1998), the best-selling Dreamcast game.
In 1999, after Sonic Adventure was released, twelve Sonic Team members moved to San Francisco to create Sonic Team USA, while others stayed in Japan. Soon after, Ohshima and other key employees left Sega to start a new studio called Artoon. Sonic Team had success in arcades with Samba de Amigo (1999) and made ChuChu Rocket! (1999), a puzzle game that used the Dreamcast's online features. In 2000, they released Phantasy Star Online, a role-playing game that was both popular and critically praised.
In 2000, Sega reorganized its studios and made its software divisions into separate companies. Naka wanted to keep the Sonic Team name, so the division became Sonic Team, Ltd. Naka became the CEO, and Sonic Team USA became a part of the new company.
Sega stopped making the Dreamcast in 2001 and stopped selling hardware. They became a third-party developer, making games for other platforms. From 2000, Sonic Team in Japan released fewer games, including Puyo Pop and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Naka said in a 2006 interview that Sonic Team missed the challenge of creating games that worked with hardware. Yasuhara left to join Naughty Dog after the Dreamcast ended. Naka still focused on original ideas, making Sonic Heroes instead of Sonic Adventure 3, exploring digital card games with Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution, and creating Billy Hatcher. Naka said Sonic's lasting success came from his appeal to children. His goal was to make games that reached the largest possible audience.
In 2003, Sega's president and COO stepped down, and new leadership planned to combine Sega's studios into four or five main groups. Sonic Team was financially strong and absorbed United Game Artists, another Sega company known for games like Space Channel 5 and Rez.
In 2004, the Japanese company Sammy bought most of Sega and formed Sega Sammy Holdings. Before the merger, Sega started integrating its subsidiaries.
Sonic Team USA / Sega Studios USA
Sonic Team USA, later known as Sega Studios USA, was a part of Sega and Sonic Team while Sonic Team was a separate company. It was created in 1999 when twelve members of Sonic Team, including Takashi Iizuka, moved to San Francisco, California. By 2000, Sonic Team USA became a part of SONICTEAM, Ltd. The team worked on game development, translation, and market studies in the United States until they returned to Japan in 2008 and joined Sonic Team again.
Sonic Team USA translated the game Sonic Adventure and tested ChuChu Rocket! in the United States before working on Sonic Adventure 2. They used ideas from places like San Francisco and Yosemite National Park in their game designs. Sonic Adventure 2 was released on June 23, 2001, and later made available on the GameCube. Their next project was Sonic Heroes (2003), the first Sonic game developed for multiple platforms. For Sonic Heroes, the team focused on gameplay styles similar to older Sonic games, making them easier for casual players to enjoy.
In 2004, SONICTEAM, Ltd. merged back into Sega, and Sonic Team USA was renamed Sega Studios USA. Their next project was Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), a game featuring Shadow the Hedgehog as the main character. This game was designed for older players and included new gameplay styles, such as using guns and having different endings. While critics did not like the level design and adult themes, the game sold more than 1.59 million copies.
The last game developed by Sega Studios USA was Nights: Journey of Dreams, a sequel to Nights into Dreams and the first Nights game since Air Nights was canceled in 2000. Iizuka wanted to keep the original game’s ideas while adding new features. The game was released on the Wii, a console aimed at families. Journey of Dreams had a European style, different from the more American feel of Sonic games. Sonic Team in Japan handled the sound and computer-generated images, while Sega Studios USA completed the rest of the development for the 2007 release.
Sega Studios USA helped develop Sonic Rivals (2006) and Sonic Rivals 2 (2007) by Backbone Entertainment. In 2008, Sega Studios USA merged with Sonic Team, and Iizuka became the head of Sonic Team and a vice president of product development for Sega. In 2016, Iizuka moved to Los Angeles to lead development, aiming to make the studios there a central place for managing the global Sonic brand.
Games
Sonic Team has created many video games, many of which have become very popular. The company is most famous for its Sonic the Hedgehog series of platform games, which make up most of its work. The 1991 release of Sonic the Hedgehog is seen as one of the most important events in video game history because it helped increase sales of the Genesis console and made Sega the top game company instead of Nintendo. Sonic Team has also developed other games, such as action games like Nights into Dreams, Burning Rangers, and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, the online puzzle game ChuChu Rocket!, the online role-playing game Phantasy Star Online, and the music game Samba de Amigo. Phantasy Star Online is credited with introducing online role-playing games to consoles and was the first online RPG that many players experienced. According to Sean Smith of Retro Gamer, few companies have released as many high-quality games over such a long time, especially between 1991 and 2000. Some Sonic Team games, like the original Sonic games for the Genesis and Nights, are considered among the best video games ever made. Iizuka stated that Sonic Team would consider making a third Nights game or a sequel to Knuckles' Chaotix (1995) if Sega asked them to.
Sega and Sonic Team have faced criticism for how they handled the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise after the introduction of 3D video games. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer described the 3D Sonic games as "20-odd years of slowly accumulating problems" and noted that, unlike Nintendo's Mario series, Sonic in 3D never had a game that was widely loved. Sega of America marketing director Al Nilsen and Sonic Mania developer Christian Whitehead said the large number of characters in Sonic games was an issue, with Whitehead calling them "padding." In 2015, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi admitted that Sega had "partially betrayed" the trust of their fans and wanted to focus on quality instead of quantity.