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 (8-bit video game)
In 1990, Sega released the Game Gear, an 8-bit handheld game console designed to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy. Around the same time, Sonic Team worked on "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the 16-bit Genesis and Sega wanted to increase consumer awareness of the Game Gear by producing a version of "Sonic" for the system. 22-year old composer Yuzo Koshiro had recently started working with Sega, having been asked to compose the soundtrack for the Genesis version of "The Revenge of Shinobi" (1989). After, he told a section chief he could develop games himself. As a result, a general manager, whom Koshiro met while working on "The Revenge of Shinobi", asked him to start developing a Game Gear version of "Sonic". Koshiro founded Ancient to develop the game because Sega could not make contracts with individuals. His sister Ayano Koshiro served as director and his mother Tomo Koshiro had a "behind the scenes" role, while the first programmer he hired was Shinobu Hayashi. The 8-bit "Sonic" was created specifically for the Game Gear, but Sega also had Ancient develop a version for the Master System, which was selling well and had similar hardware.