Sonic Team

Background

Sonic Team is the brand name currently used by Sega's CS Research and Development No. 2 (CS2) division, mainly handling the development and oversight of games in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The initial team was formed in 1990 by Takashi Iizuka, Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara (all within the original CS3). Following their first game, Sonic the Hedgehog, which was a huge success for the Genesis in 1991, most of the original team relocated to the United States during 1992 (following Naka's initial exit from Sega) and moved to Sega Technical Institute during development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 while the name remained dormant until 1995, when they moved to Sega's CS3 department during development of NiGHTS.

In 1999, the team was reorganized under Sega's R&D8 division when the company reorganized its game development units (both consumer and amusement). That same year, twelve members of the team relocated to San Francisco, California and formed "Sonic Team USA" (later "Sega Studios USA"), but eventually moved back to Japan in 2008. In 2000, Sega renamed their R&D software divisions into separate companies, as a result R&D8 became Sonic Team Ltd. but in 2005, the company was reorganized into Sega's Global Entertainment R&D division and later to its current CS2 division in 2008.

Aside from Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS, the division (and its previous incarnations) is known for developing Burning Rangers, Chu-Chu Rocket, Samba de Amigo, the Phantasy Star series (until Phantasy Star Universe, when current games in the series are now done by the CS3 division (Online R&D)), Puyo Puyo, later installments in the Sakura Wars series (including So Long, My Love, Sakura Wars 1&2, the Dramatic Dungeon spin-off and the 2019 game of the same name, titled Shin Sakura Wars in Japan) among others. As of 2008, the Sonic Team name is mainly used for games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series while all other games developed under CS2 are simply credited under the Sega name.

1st Logo (February 11, 1995-)

Open matte "Created by" version
"Compiled under the supervision of" version
Sonic Advance
Sonic Battle
White background "Created by" version
Black background "Created By" version
Black background version
Black background fullscreen version
Black background 16:10 version
Black background widescreen version
Black background scope version
Black background 48:9 version

ChuChu Rocket! (Dreamcast)
Sonic Advance 2
Sonic Pinball Party
Sonic Advance 3
Sonic Riders
Sonic 4 - Episode II (open-matte)
Sonic Forces (open-matte)

Visuals: On a black or white background is a blue silhouette image of Sonic's head with the text "SONIC TEAM" in the same font from the Sonic games in the same color. Above the text is "CREATED BY".

Variants:

On the prototype Xbox and GameCube releases of Sonic Heroes (before 10.13) and Shadow the Hedgehog, only the logo is shown with no text shown above it. Later Sonic games would feature this variant.
On ChuChu Rocket!, the logo is placed in a speech bubble.
On the arcade and Japanese Dreamcast versions of Samba de Amigo, the logo is placed on a piece of confetti paper. However, this was later replaced by the standard logo in the international Dreamcast versions and the Ver. 2000 version for both platforms, due to Sonic Team becoming a company when the game was released internationally.
On Sonic Mega Collection, the text "COMPILED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF" is seen above the logo rather than "CREATED BY".
On the Puyo Puyo games since 2001, the logo appears with the Sega logo with "PRESENTED BY" above the logo below.
On Sonic Advance 2, Sonic Pinball Party and Sonic Advance 3, the logo is superimposed on the opening cutscene of the game.
On Sonic Riders and the Nintendo 3DS port of Sonic Lost World, the logo shares the screen with the Sega logo; the latter game features the animated version.
On Sonic Lost World (aside from 4:3 fullscreen and 16:9 widescreen), the logo can also be presented in 16:10 widescreen, 21:9 scope and 48:9 super-scope.
In the ending credits for Sonic Forces where it starts inside the tower (with a shiny bloom effect) in Eggman Empire Fortress, an in-credit version appears from outside the black 16:9 box and scrolls up until it stops above it. Then it disappears seconds after the box fades out in the Metropolis location.

Technique: A still graphic designed by Hirokazu Yasuhara, either digital or sprite-based.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.

Audio Variants:

On the first four games that used this ident, albeit as variants (NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic Jam, Burning Rangers and Sonic Adventure), it included a jingle, which consisted of a whoosh noise followed by an echoing female voice whispering "Sonic Team" and a slightly low-pitched ring sound from the Sonic games that also echoes. Other sound effects were applied as well.
On ChuChu Rocket!, a chime ditty with a female chorus saying "Sonikku Chīmu" (the company name as pronounced in Japanese) is heard.
On Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle, a signature ring sound is heard.

Availability:

The standard logos are seen on almost every Sonic game developed by the studio starting with Sonic Adventure.
- However, on the PC port of Sonic Heroes, the logo was not used, but is stored as a leftover in the texture archive packed in "adv_title.one".
The variants listed above are seen on the aforementioned games.
The Puyo Puyo variant can be only found on Puyo Pop, Puyo Pop Fever, and Puyo Puyo Fever 2 Chu! from 2001-2006.

2nd Logo (November 8, 2022-)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a bright light on the right of the screen. The light later reveals rings along with grass below (which likely refers to Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog). The light later reveals to be a blue aurora trail resembling Sonic the Hedgehog collecting rings with sparkles and particle effects when collected. More rings appear and the trail goes faster until it creates an outline of the Sonic silhouette seen in the Sonic Team logo. The blue trail goes away and forms the Sonic head, but is now followed by a yellow and red trail (representing Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna), forming the "SONIC TEAM" text on the right.

Trivia: This logo was created as part of "PROJECT SONIC '22". A four-way split-screen comparison video of the animation test version, the two work-in-progress versions and the final version can be seen here. Furthermore, comments from the logo's producer and the creative director of Sonic series, Kazuyuki Hoshino, the logo's sound director, Kenichi Tokoi, Yota Suzuki and Taiyo Yamamoto of flapper3 and Akira Ito of Marza Animation Planet can be seen on the Sonic series' official Japanese portal page, Sonic Channel, both in Japanese and English, here. Furthermore, still shots are found on flapper3's website.

Variant: On Sonic Origins (Plus) as of the 2.0.0 update and Sonic Superstars, the logo takes place on a white background. The outline disappears more often.

Technique: CGI by Marza Animation Planet, with assistance from flapper3. It is animated at 60fps, while Sonic Frontiers, as well as the digital artbook and mini soundtrack app for that said game and Sonic Superstars, shows it at 24fps.

Audio: It starts off with a quiet whoosh (not the whoosh heard in older games like Sonic Jam and Adventure) with the iconic ring sound when the Sonic trail collects the rings (now in normal pitch, like on NiGHTS Journey of Dreams), with the whoosh sound becoming louder and more like the sound heard when boosting in Sonic games beginning in Sonic Unleashed. When the Sonic head outline is formed, an orchestral arrangement of the Chaos Emerald jingle heard in many Genesis-era Sonic games (which later became the Extra Life jingle since Sonic Adventure) is heard. This was composed, sound produced and sound directed by Kenichi Tokoi.

Availability: First appeared on Sonic Frontiers, and later on newer versions of Sonic Origins (including Sonic Origins Plus; plastering the previous logo), and Sonic Superstars. It is also seen on the digital artbook and mini soundtrack apps for Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Superstars.