News: But who Sega got to develop it isn't a bad choice.
It looks like Sonic Team may or may not be developing Sonic's 2D rebirth. A listing for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 on the Xbox Live Marketplace has revealed the developer as Dimps, which is in direct opposition to the Sonic Team logo at the end of the announcement trailer.
Sadly, highlighting the work of an internal team (that may or may not have had anything to do with the development) and denying credit to an outside developer is fairly common in the game industry.
However, if Dimps is behind Sonic's latest game, then fans of the series may not have much to worry about. The company (under the supervision of Sonic Team) is responsible for some of the most acclaimed Sonic titles in recent memory, such as the
Sonic Advance series and both
Sonic Rush games. If Dimps is the real developer, it's likely that a similar partnership was put in place for Sonic 4.
For their part, Sega hasn't commented on Sonic 4's development situation. But if Dimps' involvement in Sonic 4 is anything like their involvement with the Advance/Rush titles, their name was mostly kept hidden on all of the promotional materials.
We'll have more soon.