Editing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (section)

===Background===
The original ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' was developed by [[Sonic Team]] in Japan and released in 1991 around the world. The title greatly increased the popularity of [[Sega]] and helped making the company a formidable rival for [[Nintendo]], who before that controlled the video game market. However, before the game released, programmer [[Yuji Naka]] quit Sega of Japan due to dissatisfactions and financial issues with the company.<ref name="Sega16">{{Cite web |first=Ken |last=Horowitz |title=Developer's Den: Sega Technical Institute |url=https://www.sega-16.com/2007/06/developers-den-sega-technical-institute/ |publisher=Sega-16 |archivedate=16 August 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816104409/https://www.sega-16.com/2007/06/developers-den-sega-technical-institute/ |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="Famitsu">{{Cite web |first=Ray |last=Maba |date=24 June 2016 |title=『ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ』誕生・ヒット・新生の真実をソニックチームのレジェンドクリエイターが、25周年のいま明かす　秘蔵資料満載の永久保存版！|url=https://www.famitsu.com/news/201606/24107383.html |language=Japanese |work=Famitsu |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref>

While ''Sonic 1'' was still under development, American game designer [[Mark Cerny]], who had previously worked in Sega games like ''Galactic Protector'', established the [[Sega Technical Institute]] (STI) in the United States, with the idea of hiring aspiring American game designers who would receive training by Sega of Japan's most experienced minds. The game designer of ''Sonic 1'', [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]], was one of the first people who were offered a position in the team; he accepted a year later when he made up his mind. While meeting up with his colleagues in Japan as usual, Cerny learned of Naka's situation, and thus paid him a visit and listened to the reasons why he had left. Naka was ultimately convinced to rejoin Sega at the STI, shielded from Sega of Japan's critique and with a higher salary. Various other members of Sonic Team joined him too.<ref name="strafefox">{{Cite web |author=strafefox |date=22 May 2018 |title=The Making of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQuDnNO9JsM |publisher=YouTube |accessdate=20 April 2023}}</ref><ref name="Sega16" /> Meanwhile, the rest of the development team stayed in Japan to develop ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD]]'' by the request of the president of Sega.<ref name="Famitsu" />

In September 1991, Naka moved to California, where he reunited with Yasuhara. Around this time, with other original titles underway, Cerny pitched a sequel to ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', but Sega managment believed that it was too soon for one.<ref name="Sega16" /> With no new project assigned, the team would make some experiments for the eventual sequel. In November, however, Cerny got a frantic call from his superiors who had revered course and told him that they needed the game. The pressure was so much that the release date of the game was originally set to release in October 1992 (one month before the final release date), meaning that the team only had eleven months to complete the game.<ref name="strafefox" /> With two months having been lost from the original schedule, Cerny had to scramble to get his team organized to complete it in time. Full-scale development of ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' began in early 1992. At first, the developers were exclusively Americans, as the Japanese side of the team had not arrived yet due to visa complications.<ref name="Sega16" />