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).
Sega Saturn
Journalists and fans have speculated about the impact a completed "X-treme" might have had on the market. David Houghton of GamesRadar described the prospect of "a good 3D "Sonic" game" on the Saturn as "a 'What if...' situation on a par with the dinosaurs not becoming extinct." IGN's Tavis Fahs called "X-treme" "the turning point not only for Sega's mascot and their 32-bit console, but for the entire company", but noted that the game served as "an empty vessel for Sega's ambitions and the hopes of their fans". Dave Zdyrko, who operated a prominent Saturn fan website during the system's lifespan, said: "I don't know if ["X-treme"] could've saved the Saturn, but ... "Sonic" helped make the Genesis and it made absolutely no sense why there wasn't a great new "Sonic" title ready at or near the launch of the [Saturn]". In a 2007 retrospective, producer Mike Wallis maintained that "X-treme" "definitely would have been competitive" with Nintendo's "Super Mario 64". By contrast, "Next Generation" reported in late 1996 that the game did not compare well to contemporary competition, and would have harmed Sega's reputation if it had been completed and released. Naka stated that he was relieved by the cancellation, as the game "wasn't looking very good from my perspective".