| Type | Subsidiary of Sega |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Founded | 1990 (as Sonic Team Presents) 2000 (as Sonic Team Ltd.) |
| Founder(s) | Yuji Naka Naoto Ōshima Hirokazu Yasuhara Manabu Kusunoki |
| Headquarters | Ota, Tokyo, Japan |
| Key people | Takashi Iizuka (Game Designer/Producer) Kazuyuki Hoshino (Artist) Jun Senoue (Composer) Yuji Uekawa (Illustrator) Tetsu Katano (Programmer) |
| Products | Video games |
| Parent | Sega |
| Website | sonicteam.com |
Sonic Team (SONICTEAM/ソニックチーム Sonikku Chīmu) is a Japanese computer and video game developer established in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan in 1990, originally known as Sega AM8. The Japan-based division is also known as G.E. Department Global Entertainment. The studio has collaborated with several in-house Japanese studios as well as other American-based studios such as STI and Visual Concepts. Sonic Team are best known for the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The American division was discontinued in 2008.
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In 1990, Sega asked to create a game with a character that was popular enough to rival Nintendo's Mario, resulting in the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. In 1991 AM8 took its name from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and became Sonic Team.
Following the release of Sonic The Hedgehog, Yuji Naka grew dissatisfied with Sega Japan's policies and so moved to Sega of America to work in the offices of the newly established Sega Technical Institute, headed by Mark Cerny. Due to most of Sonic Team's key members moving to the Western branch, Sega Technical Institute got the job of handling Sonic's Mega Drive sequels. The American developers collaborated with Sonic Team in the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Most of the STI staff worked on the zone art and special stages, while most of Sonic Team worked on the level designs and the programming. However, due to most of the Sonic Team staff lacking the ability to speak English, there was trouble with language barriers and differences in approach to game design. Sonic Team members worked very late nights and sometimes slept under their desks in order to perfectly achieve Yuji Naka's guidelines.
After the completion of Sonic 2, Yuji Naka made the final decision to only allow the Japanese members in the core development team to work on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Following the completion of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Yuji Naka was offered the role of producer at Sega of Japan. Sonic Team oversaw the development of every major Sonic title released on the Sega Mega Drive.
The launch of the Sega Saturn, and the cancellation of the beleaguered Sonic Xtreme title saw Sonic Team focus on other titles, including Nights Into Dreams and Burning Rangers. The Sega Dreamcast followed in 1998, and launched with the return of Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure. Other Sonic Team Dreamcast titles included ChuChu Rocket!, Samba de Amigo, and Phantasy Star Online.
During the transitional phase of Sega dropping out of the console race to concentrate on software and game development, all of its main departments were separated from the main company and established on semi-autonomous subsidiaries. In 2000, Sonic Team officially became Sonic Team Ltd. In 2002, the other creator of Sonic, Hirokazu Yasuhara, left Sonic Team when he moved to Naughty Dog.
Also during this phase, United Game Artists (formerly Sega AM9) merged with Sonic Team Japan in 2003 to start the Sonic Riders series. In 2004, following Sega's merger with Sammy, Sonic Team once more became an internal division of Sega after being spun off as a second-party developer in 2000. The company name of Sonic Team USA is also changed to Sega Studio USA. Unlike most of the other divisions, Sonic Team still retains its internal structure and name. On May 8, 2006, Naka left the group with ten other members of Sonic Team to establish an independent game developer, Prope.
In 2009, the director of Sonic Unleashed and creator of the Hedgehog Engine, Yoshihisa Hashimoto, left Sonic Team to move to Square Enix. In 2010, it was confirmed that Dimps, developers of the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush titles, would be co-developing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 with Sonic Team. In 2011, Sega announced the development of Sonic Generations, a 2D/3D platformer that would blend classic levels from the original series up to the modern generation. Development is spread out across Sonic Team and Dimps with a HD version for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and a strict 2D version for the Nintendo 3DS being produced respectively.
Sonic Team USA was the United States division of Sonic Team located in San Francisco, California. The division was formed in 1999. All of the team members that worked at Sega Studio USA were Japanese, with the exception of Brad Wagner (Artist) who was hired at the studio during the development of Shadow the Hedgehog.[3] The division first worked on ChuChu Rocket! and the international release of Sonic Adventure. In 2005, the division changed their official name to Sega Studio USA.
The US branch's first game was the 2001 Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure 2. The newly established Sonic Team USA was so influenced by their new San Francisco location, that the level designers of the game, Takashi Iizuka and Eitaro Toyoda, designed some of the levels, such as the City Escape, Mission Street, Radical Highway, Route 101, and Route 280 levels as references to major San Francisco locations. The City Escape level resembles the steep, downhill roads of the city.
In 2002, Sonic Team USA ported Sonic Adventure 2 to the GameCube, the first home console Sonic title to appear on a major non-SEGA system following the cancellation of the Dreamcast. They had 6 months to polish and refine the game for the GameCube. The port was renamed Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, after the added multiplayer mode enhancements. The developers made minor graphical improvements, included additional Chao Garden extras, and added in extra level geometry such as trees. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was the only third party game on the GameCube to sell over one million copies in the United States alone.
Their next project was Sonic Heroes, released in 2003. The team wanted to port this game on all platforms to achieve better sales and broaden the fanbase, so they decided to use RenderWare as a game engine to make programming the game on multiple consoles a lot easier, due to the studio's lack of experience developing for the Xbox. The game was released on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC platforms.
After Sonic Heroes, Sonic Team USA decided to change their official name to Sega Studio USA. Sega Studio USA went on to make their next multiplatform game, Shadow the Hedgehog, using the studio's own game engine instead of RenderWare. The game was released on the Gamecube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Despite a largely negative critical reaction, the game sold in excess of a million copies. This helped increase Sega's profits in 2006.[6]. The game was notable for including references in the game to past Sonic Team games that some of the members at the studio had worked on.
Members of Sega Studio USA also supervised and designed the concept for Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2 on the PSP although the actual development of the games was done by Backbone Entertainment.
Nights: Journey of Dreams, the sequel to Sega Saturn title Nights Into Dreams was released for the Nintendo Wii in 2007. A new game engine was designed for the game, which utilises PhysX. The team also decided to not include American influence in the game like some of the modern 3D Sonic games, instead choosing a more British based influence. Following the game's release, Eitaro Toyoda moved back to Sonic Team Japan to work on Sonic and the Secret Rings as a game designer.
AM Annex was a first-party video game development studio for Sega of Japan. In 2000, Sega-AM9 (as they were later called) became United Game Artists or (UGA) when Sega reorganized its studios to become second-party developer. They released three games for the Sega Dreamcast before they were merged with Sonic Team Japan in 2003. They are more well known for their work on Space Channel 5, Rez and the Sonic Riders series.
The Sega Technical Institute was a video game development division of Sega based in the United States, unlike the AM divisions which were based in Japan.
STI was at one time an elite organization within Sega of America that developed games such as Kid Chameleon, Comix Zone, The Ooze and Die Hard Arcade (this one being the result of a collaboration between STI and successful arcade game developers AM1).
While the original Sonic the Hedgehog was developed in Japan by Sonic Team, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was developed by Sonic Team in the US with several members of Sega Technical Institute assisting [1].
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were again developed by Sonic Team in the US, but this time with some of STI's musicians contributing to the score. Sega Technical Institute held the principal responsibility for Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball instead.
Sonic Spinball was also developed by Polygames Interactive Limited released in 1993 for the Genesis after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Also STI developed Compile released Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine for the Genesis after Sonic Spinball.
STI disbanded after the cancellation of Sonic X-treme. Some of the key members then went to Microsoft and Luxoflux.
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