Realizing that the majority of the team responsible for the classic games was still under Sega's employment, Iizuka made it a point to discuss with each person what made up Sonic, not just as a compelling character but as a compelling game series, not wanting to lose those essential elements in the jump to 3D. Though work on Sonic Team's second non-Sonic property Burning Rangers was underway, it was decided that the group would indeed look into producing the next big Sonic game. Though it is possible Naka and Ohshima were quite aware that they would have to produce another Sonic title at some point, it was Takashi Iizuka, Senior Game Designer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles who began pushing the idea of a "Sonic RPG" to be the development studio's next big game. Takashi Iizuka, Director of Sonic Adventure. To the outside world, it seemed clear that the only people who would be able to make Sonic work in the new generation of gaming would be the people responsible for helping launch the franchise in the first place - Sonic Team. While other titles such as the Traveler's Tales-produced Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island and the Sega 32X exclusive title Chaotix attempted to fill the void left by X-treme, it was clear that these titles would not be the heavy-hitters the company needed. Indeed, through numerous shifts and changes in both hardware and the director, the project ultimately would be canceled, leaving a hole in the Saturn lineup that would be felt across the board at Sega. With Naka viewing the very first conceptual ideas for the game, the man who would become the head of Sonic Team simply shook his head, saying "good luck" and moving on. Though filled with people who had grand visions of what Sonic would be like in the third dimension, the project would be almost doomed from the start. Knowing that the Sonic franchise was still a viable money-making tool, Sega was unwilling to let the series slumber, assigning the members of STI that remained to work on the next major installment of the series: Sonic X-treme. With the Sega Saturn hardware well on its way to being released for the consumer market, the team began development on an idea Naka had conceived right after the completion of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - NiGHTS Into Dreams. Resurrecting the Sonic Team name, a group of both veteran members and newcomers decided to begin work on a title completely separate from the Sonic concept, wanting to prove that the minds behind the biggest franchise in Sega's catalogue were able to create new and exciting ideas without completely relying on the most famous hedgehog in the world. Once back in Japan, Naka finally reunited with the original creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Naoto Ohshima. With the completion of Sonic & Knuckles, the majority of the Japanese side of the Sega Technical Institute, including producer and programmer Yuji Naka, decided to return to their native land, leaving behind the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise in the hands of other creative teams in other countries.
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