Sonic Team

Sonic Team logo

Sonic Team (ソニックチーム Sonikku Chīmu) is a Japanese computer and video game developer established in Ota, Tokyo, Japan in 1988, originally known as Sega AM8.

In 1990, Sega asked one of their departments, AM8, to create a game with a character that was popular enough to rival Nintendo's Mario. The result with what the group came up with was a speedy platformer with a new, fresh character called Sonic the Hedgehog. In 1991 AM8 took its name from its phenomenally successful Sonic the Hedgehog series and became Sonic Team. It is one of Sega's most popular creative teams. Sonic Team was headed by the famed video game designer and producer Yuji Naka. Under his leadership Sonic Team has become a creative powerhouse in the video game industry. Despite the extreme popularity of the game, Yuji Naka grew dissatisfied with Sega of Japan's policies and so moved to Sega's U.S. branch, Sega Technical Institute, headed by Mark Cerny. Due to some of Sonic Team's key members moving to the Western branch, Sega Technical Institute got the job to handle Sonic's Mega Drive sequels. After the completion of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Yuji Naka and the Sonic Team name finally became respected by Sega. Naka was even offered the role of producer at Sega of Japan. With the company's name revived, Sonic Team started developing different franchises, such as NiGHTS into Dreams, Burning Rangers, ChuChu Rocket!, Samba de Amigo, and Phantasy Star Online. The joint creator of Sonic, Naoto Oshima, left Sonic Team to form his own studio, Artoon.

Sonic Team's United States division, Sonic Team USA, was founded in 1999 when Takashi Iizuka and a group of Sonic Team members decided to stay in America after testing the international releases for Sonic Adventure and ChuChu Rocket! to make games that appealed to the western market, like Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic Team's United States branch is established in #650-650 Townsend Street San Francisco, California 94103-4908, inside the same building Sega of America resides in.

During the transistional phase of Sega dropping out of the console race to concentrate on software and game development, all of its main departments were seperated from the main company and established on semi-autonomous subsidiaries. In 2000, Sonic Team officialy became SONICTEAM Ltd. Also during this phase, United Game Artists (formerly Sega AM9) merged with Sonic Team in 2003 to start the Sonic Riders series. In 2004, Sega aquired Sega Sammy Holdings. Due to this new establishment company, all of Sega's subsidiary divisions were put back into their previous departments, including Sonic Team. 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. Also, recently, fans have been angered at the recent quality of the Sonic franchise

Contrary to popular belief, most of the portable Sonic games released since 2002 were not developed by Sonic Team. Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2, and Sonic Advance 3 were developed by Dimps, a Japanese developer. Sonic Rivals, and Sonic Rivals 2 were developed by Backbone Entertainment, a Canadian developer.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl The Sonic Team logo makes an appearance as Sonic's symbol.

Console games developed by Sonic Team

Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Sega Genesis) (1991) Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) (1991) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) (1992) Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (16-bit) (1994) Sonic & Knuckles (16-bit) (1994) Ristar (16-bit) (1995) NiGHTS Into Dreams (1996) Christmas NiGHTS (1996) Burning Rangers (1998) Sonic Adventure/Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (1999/2003) ChuChu Rocket! (1999/2000) Samba de Amigo (1999-arcade version; 2000-console versions) Samba de Amigo Ver.2000 (2000-Japan) Phantasy Star Online (2000) Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (2003) Puyo Pop Fever (2003-arcade version; 2004-console versions) Astro Boy (2004) Puyo Pop Fever 2 (2005) Sonic Riders (UGA Division) (2006) Atama Scan (2006-Japan) Phantasy Star Universe (2006) Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary (2007) Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007) Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (UGA Division) (2008) Games developed by Sega Studio USA (Sonic Team USA) Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (2001/2002) Sonic Heroes (2003 in Japan, 2004 in U.S. and Europe) Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) Nights: Journey of Dreams (2007 in U.S. and Japan, 2008 in Europe) Handheld games created or supervised by Sonic Team Sonic Pinball Party (2002) Puyo Pop Fever (2004) Feel the Magic: XY/XX (UGA Division) (2004) Puyo Pop Fever 2 (2005) The Rub Rabbits! (UGA Division) (2005) Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary (2006) Sonic Advance (2001) Sonic Advance 2 (2002) Sonic Battle (2004) Sonic Advance 3 (2004) Sonic Rush (2005) Sonic Rush Adventure (2007) Phantasy Star Portable (2008) Sonic Team compilations Sonic Jam (1997) Sonic Mega Collection (2002-GameCube)/Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004-PS2/Xbox/PC) Sonic Gems Collection (2005) Games developed in co-operation with Sonic Team Sonic The Fighters (Arcade) (1996) Sonic 3D Blast (1996) Sonic R (1997) Sonic Shuffle (2000) See also Sega External links Template:Ja icon Sonic Team's official website [[Image: ]]