Sonic the Hedgehog 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog is a platform game released June 23rd, 1991 by Sonic Team. It was published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis system, and was sent out to North America, Europe, and Japan. During the holiday season in 1991, the Genesis had outsold the Nintendo nearly 2-1 because of the game's release. This led to Sega taking over Nintendo with a 55% control over the 16-bit console market, which was the first time Nintento hadn't been the console leader since December 1985. This also led to selling 4 million copies of the game, being the 2nd most popular game for Genesis right behind Sonic 2, which sold 6 million copies. external image sonic_1_screen.jpg