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 Genesis
On May 22, 2006, North American company Super Fighter Team released "Beggar Prince", a game translated from a 1996 Chinese original. It was released worldwide and was the first commercial Genesis game release in North America since 1998. Super Fighter Team would later go on to release two more games for the system, "Legend of Wukong" and "Star Odyssey". In December 2010, WaterMelon, an American company, released "Pier Solar and the Great Architects", the first commercial role-playing video game specifically developed for the console since 1996, and the biggest 16-bit game ever produced at 64 Mb. "Pier Solar" is the only cartridge-based game which can optionally use the Sega CD to play an enhanced soundtrack and sound effects disc. In 2013, independent programmer Future Driver, inspired by the Disney film "Wreck-It Ralph", developed "Fix-It Felix Jr." for the Genesis.