Updated:Turns out not all the facts were right about this one, Joystiq got in touch with Sega, and Sega corrected the fact that they were not developing. In fact, Sonic Team will be co-developer along with Dimps. Dimps and Sonic Team have had a working relationship for a long while, so this collaboration should be fine.

Updated Editor’s Note: Looks like I dropped the ball on this one, as numerous other sites did too. Good job on Joystiq’s part for getting the facts straight. News always changes and we can never always get the news right the first time. Nevertheless, I apologize for the error.

Original Story: In some interesting news about the Sonic reboot, it was discovered that the brains behind the Sonic games, Sonic Team, will not develop the game. This is HUGE news, when it comes to the development of a Sonic game, because Sonic Team has virtually oversaw the entire series (hence the name “Sonic” Team).

Yet over the past decade, Sonic Team has lost the shine it once had with the series, with the failure to adapt Sonic into the 3D world after the DreamCast era. It also lost a lot of creativity, as all of the founders of Sonic Team moved on to other projects; most notable leaving was Yuji Naka, who was the creator of Sonic.

There is some ray of hope though, as the gaming company Dimps will be taking over production of the series. Dimps has been working closely with Sonic Team with many Sonic titles like both Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series. They’ve also gain notoriety for developing games like Dragonball Z: Budokai series, and more recently, co-developing Street Fighter IV with Capcom. Since they’ve had experience with Sonic’s 2D background (because both Advance and Rush series were mostly 2D) it seems like a fitting choice for Sega to put their faith back into series that once was akin to Mario’s status.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4, is tentatively scheduled for summer 2010, and will be in episodic form.

Editor’s Note: Well, this is interesting. I find this information to be some what surprising, as Sonic Team has been the the main creator of the series since 1990, when it was know as Sega AM8. I can certainly understand the move, since Sonic Team had a tumultuous decade when working on Sonic since their last great Sonic success in Sonic Adventure 2. What Sega is doing is a gutsy call, but considering that Dimps is currently having more success right now in 2D/2.5D games, it is most definitely the logical choice. Adding fuel to that is the fact they already worked on numerous Sonic titles, which were garnered as successes. Whether they will create another hit remains to be seen, but give credit to Sega for making such a maneuver.

Sources: CVG; Kotaku; Joystiq