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
Between "Sonic Advance 2" and "Sonic Advance 3", two other Sonic games were released: "Sonic Battle", a 3D fighting game, and "Sonic Pinball Party", a pinball simulation. The last Sonic game was released for the Game Boy Advance is "Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis" on 2006, which features the original Genesis game and the 15-anniversary mode with the Spin Dash.