Sonic Team
The initial team formed in 1990 and was composed of developers from Sega's Consumer Development division, including programmer Yuji Naka, artist Naoto Ohshima, and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. The team took the name Sonic Team in 1991 with the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the Sega Genesis. The game was a major success that 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 returned to Japan in late 1994 to become the head of CS3, later renamed R&D #8. During this time, the division took on the Sonic Team brand but developed games that do not feature Sonic, such as "Nights into Dreams" (1996) and "Burning Rangers" (1998).
Sonic the Hedgehog
"Sonic Colors", released in November 2010, expanded further on the "Rush" series gameplay with the addition of the use of "Wisps", which gave Sonic various new power-ups and gimmicks. "Sonic Free Riders" was released in November 2010 as a follow-up to the "Sonic Riders" series, and was developed exclusively for Xbox 360's Kinect system. Later on, "Sega Superstars Tennis" for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS was released in 2008 and "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing" for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and PC and iOS was released in 2010, followed by a sequel in 2012.