Sonic Frontiers. Sonic Team also contributed to the 2019 reboot of Sakura Wars. Sonic Team USA / Sega Studios USA Sonic Team USA, later Sega Studios USA, was a division of Sega and of Sonic Team while Sonic Team was a subsidiary company. It was founded when twelve Sonic Team members, including Takashi Iizuka, relocated to San Francisco, California, in 1999, and was a subsidiary of SONICTEAM, Ltd. by 2000. The team worked on game development, translation, and market studies in the United States, until they returned to Japan and merged back into Sonic Team in 2008. Sonic Team USA translated Sonic Adventure and tested ChuChu Rocket! in America before beginning work on Sonic Adventure 2. They took inspiration from their location in San Francisco, as well as Yosemite National Park and other areas of the United States. Sonic Adventure 2 was released on 23 June 2001, and was ported to the GameCube. The next Sonic Team USA project was Sonic Heroes (2003), the first Sonic game developed for multiple platforms. Sonic Team USA took a different approach with Heroes from the Sonic Adventure games, focusing on gameplay more similar to the Genesis games to which even casual gamers could adapt. After SONICTEAM, Ltd. merged back into Sega in 2004, Sonic Team USA was renamed Sega Studios USA. The division's next project was Shadow the Hedgehog, released in 2005, a spin-off starring Shadow. Unlike previous games, Shadow the Hedgehog was targeted at older players and featured different gameplay styles, including the use of guns and different endings to the game. Shadow the Hedgehog was critically panned for its mature themes and level design, but was a commercial success, selling at least 1.59 million units. The final Sega Studios USA game was Nights: Journey of Dreams, the sequel to Nights into Dreams and the first Nights game since the cancellation of Air Nights in 2000. Iizuka felt it was important to retain the original game's concepts while developing new mechanics, and released it on the Wii, a more family-oriented console. Journey of Dreams was also designed to have a more European feel, in contrast to the Sonic games, which were more American. The sound and CGI were completed by Sonic Team in Japan, while Sega Studios USA handled the rest of the development for the 2007 release. Sega Studios USA oversaw the development of Sonic Rivals (2006) and Sonic Rivals 2