In 1994, Sega released the Sega Pico, an ' edutainment' device powered by the same hardware used by the Genesis. The game was not licensed by Sega, but the company did express interest in it and could have potentially published it jointly with US Gold. Despite having been nearly finished, it was canceled. Edusoft was made using sprites ripped from the original game. While Sonic the Hedgehog 2 began development in late 1991, the Manchester-based Tiertex Design Studios began to work on an educational video game set in the Sonic universe called Sonic's Edusoft for the Master System. With the game's popularity, the series began to expand into other genres.

Released by Sega in 1991, it greatly increased the popularity of the Sega Genesis in North America and established Sega as Nintendo's main rival in the console market. The original game, a side-scrolling platform game, was developed by Sonic Team in Japan. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the bestselling video game franchises ever, selling over 80 million units for the combined series as of 2011. In the mid-2000s, LeapFrog Enterprises released educational Sonic games for its Leapster and LeapFrog Didj. Orion Interactive also developed the 1996 Sega PC game Sonic's Schoolhouse, which used a 3D game engine and had an exceptionally large marketing budget. When Sega launched the Sega Pico in 1994, it released Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld and Tails and the Music Maker for it. The first attempt to create an educational Sonic game was Tiertex Design Studios' Sonic's Edusoft for the Master System in late 1991, which was canceled despite having been nearly finished. Among these are several educational video games designed to appeal to young children. As the Sonic the Hedgehog series of platform games has grown in popularity, its publisher Sega has expanded the franchise into multiple different genres.

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