I'm not sure this fits under the Iizuka relocating to USA to "oversee development of new games" topic, but feel free to merge. With Iizuka and others at the "Sonic Pillar" in LA, the closure of Sega's former headquarters in both San Francisco and Otorii, and Sega's general restructuring over the last few years, I can't seem to find any understanding of what team is in charge of Sonic and how they're set up. The wiki is fairly lacking in information of this modern age. Do we have any insight into exactly what is happening in any measurable detail?
What is Sonic Team in 2019? No longer working on Sonic and retired as a studio name is my personal hope.
To my knowledge that's pretty much all we know at this point. My best guess is that the "Sonic Team" mantle is picked up by whatever development team is tasked with creating mainline Sonic games, not a specific body of individuals anymore. That could definitely be wrong but there's really nothing to prove or disprove that and honestly not even much to talk about yet until information for the upcoming title is revealed to determine what the real situation is.
Naoto Oshima left after SA1 (and oddly was not credited in the DX version...), Yuji Naka left after Sonic 06. Sonic Team obviously consisted of others, but two of the most important core people have been gone for quite some time already. And the only two Sonic games they actually made together were S1 and SA1. There was hardly ever a Sonic Team to begin with, and if there ever was, it's been dead for decades.
Doesn't Iizuka relocate to America to have a unified Sonic development studio all the time? I remember them making similar announcements twice before. Once during around-Shadow and then again shortly after Boom (and possibly some other times as well). Each time, the announcement seems like it's a new development strategy to have a more unified approach to Sonic, but that clearly can't be the case if he has to relocate again a while later.
This is kind of how I'm seeing it these days. Like how bands change members but keep the same name, especially as they recycle out former members. Fittingly enough, Crush 40's Johnny Gioeli has his own band called Hardline. Except currently None of the original members of Hardline are part of the current band, except Johnny himself. Yet it's still the same band, same Wikipedia page, etc. Iizuka being the lead singer in this example. don't picture that in your head for too long
Excellent thread as it's an important question. We don't know for definite or with any degree of clear accuracy yet. We need to wait on news. But what we do know from Sega documents and recent news: Sonic Team (Japan): Restructured and merged in to Sega's CS2 (CS1 handles Yakuza). Project: New IP. Sonic Team (USA): The Sonic "Pillar" they're referring to headed up by Iizuka. Nishiyama (ex-Sonic Adventure 1/2) just joined them. Project: The next Sonic game. Nishiyama is in LA. He just did a stream with Aaron there and is (presumably) there with Iizuka at this "Sonic Pillar" entity. So the primary question is (basically the title of this thread) what is Sonic Team now? Educated guess: just a name. Which has been true for a long time though even more so now. They'll keep going with the "Sonic Team" name but the actual, real teams have been re-structured and separated by Sega probably in response to Forces, divided between the US and Japan with the US version handling Sonic whilst the Japanese variant (as in the ex-Sonic Team Japan members that are now part of CS2) handling the new IP they have been confirmed to be working on. And to be honest, that's the extent of our knowledge (of which we do have evidence indicating so) until Sega further clarifies.
Why you gotta do Hirokazu Yasuhara dirty like that. (Although he sorta quit Sonic Team after 3&K and left Sega proper for Naughty Dog in 2002--indeed, the original 1991 Sonic was the only time all three of them worked together on the same project).
Weren't all three invovled in the Traveller's Tales games to some capacity? Anyways, of the three Yasuhara has the best post-Sonic résumé (Uncharted!) And apropos of nothing, Naka is the only one who hasn't worked on a Marioverse game.
You're right, I did make a mistake there. 3D Blast has Yasuhara credited for playfield design, Oshima and Naka were both credited as advisers. Sonic R has Yasuhara responsible for map design, Naka as a producer, and Oshima as a graphic adviser. (On another note, Sonic Jam had Naka as a producer and Oshima as a supervisor, so it can be said those two worked on at least another game besides Sonic 1 and SA1.) I'd love to live into the alternative timeline where Yasuhara got the chance to design and direct at least one proper 3D Genesis Sonic platformer before he left. Save for Daisuke Mori's work on Sonic Jam's hubworld, I'd reckon he undeniably came the closest to reaching that goal. (It's worth noting that STI actually reached out to him to help out with X-treme's development before the bottom fell out.) And Naka being the only one who hasn't worked on a Mario (or Mario-related) game is a bit hilarious in hindsight since he said he actually pitched a proper Mario/Sonic crossover game a while back, IIRC.
