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).
Educational games in the Sonic series
In 1996, Sega and Orion Interactive collaborated to produce "Sonic's Schoolhouse", an educational game in the Sega PC brand for Microsoft Windows. It was developed using a game engine similar to "Wolfenstein 3D"s and ten educators and psychologists helped create the game's challenges. A cartoon clock was originally the star of the game but was replaced with Sonic; thus, "Sonic's Schoolhouse" is only tenuously connected to the rest of the franchise. The game was released as part of Sega's 20 million "Blue is Back" marketing campaign to promote six "Sonic" games releasing in the holiday shopping season; advertisements for the game were run in magazines and it was promoted in store displays. "Sonic's Schoolhouse" also came bundled coupons worth 40 in discounts for "Sonic" merchandise, including comics and plush toys.