Sega

Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Japan, with various offices around the world. Sega previously developed and manufactured its own brand of home video game consoles, such as the Sega Mega Drive (known as the Sega Genesis in North America), the Sega Saturn, and the Sega Dreamcast, from 1983 to 2001. On January 31, 2001, Sega announced that they ceased production of the Dreamcast, effectively exiting the company from the home console business and market. While arcade development would continue unchanged, the restructure shifted the focus of the company's home video game software development to consoles developed by various third-party manufacturers.

Sega has developed many Disney video games that were released exclusively on their own consoles throughout the 1990s. Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog and his nemesis, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, made cameo appearances in Wreck-It Ralph in 2012 and its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018. Additionally, Ralph, the titular character of the films, was a playable character in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Prior to that, reruns of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog were shown on Toon Disney from 1998 to 2003, and reruns of Sonic Underground aired on Disney XD in 2012. Sega also hosted an exhibit in Epcot's Innoventions West pavilion, where guests could play Sega games ranging from the Genesis to the Dreamcast, and Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Princess Sally were all present. The 2022 film Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, features cameo appearances from "Ugly Sonic", based on the scrapped original design of the character in the 2020 film adaptation.

Association with Disney[]

In 1993, Buena Vista Home Video formed a partnership with DIC Animation City to release some of their titles on VHS, under the newly formed DIC Toon-Time Video label. During this time, DIC had already produced Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog, and both series were reissued under this deal.

As a result of Disney’s acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC three years later in 1996, Disney also assumed the latter’s ownership of DIC Entertainment in the form of a Limited Partnership through the company’s CEO, Andy Heyward. At the time, Disney owned the previous shows released as part of DIC’s television license to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, under license from Sega. Later that same year, the Sonic Christmas Blast television special aired during the holiday season on the USA Network, becoming the first post-acquisition Sonic-related production from DIC to be distributed through Disney. The special was also meant to tie-in with Sonic 3D Blast, hence the “Blast” in the title, despite it having very little to do with the game, and instead combining aspects of both of the aforementioned series.

On January 6, 1999, the third series and the fourth overall Sonic-related production by DIC, known as Sonic Underground, was released. DIC Entertainment had their own distribution unit in the United States, whereas Buena Vista International Television distributed the series internationally. As a result, it was the first Sonic-related television series and the second overall production in the franchise to be released through Disney, following the aforementioned Christmas special from three years prior. The series was cancelled on May 23, 1999 after running for a total of 40 episodes in one season.

In 2000, The Walt Disney Company sold DIC Entertainment back to CEO Andy Heyward. As a result of this occurring, Disney would lose the rights to DIC’s catalogue of Sonic-related productions. Despite this, re-runs of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Underground would continue airing on the Toon Disney channel for another few years, with Sonic the Hedgehog becoming the first and only non-Disney character to receive an original logo variant on the network.

Following Disney’s acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide in 2002, Disney inherited the rights to the international Fox Kids channels through Fox Kids Europe N.V. In the United States however, the Fox Kids channel was a block on the Fox channel that was still owned by Fox Broadcasting Company, and in the same year, it was announced that Sega was developing a new anime series in-association with TMS Entertainment, known as Sonic X. The next year in 2003, Sonic X aired on the FoxBox block, which served as the North American replacement to Fox Kids. Internationally, however, the European license to the series was acquired by Fox Kids Europe in August 2003, and as a result, the series aired on the Fox Kids channels, and like Sonic Underground, was also distributed by Buena Vista International Television. In late 2004, during the release of the show's second season, the international Fox Kids channels were rebranded as Jetix, and Disney also held consumer rights to the show in Pan-European territories through their Jetix Consumer Products division. Disney would eventually lose the rights to the anime in Europe in 2009 after their license expired.

Sonic the Hedgehog, alongside Dr. Eggman, would also make an appearance in the 2012 CGI animated film Wreck-It Ralph, with Sonic returning for its 2018 sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet. To tie-in with Wreck-It Ralph, the titular character became a playable character in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, a racing crossover game developed and published by Sega that also featured Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails the Fox as playable characters.