The first "Sonic" game, released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis, was developed after Sega requested a mascot character to compete with Nintendo's mascot Mario. Its success helped Sega become one of the leading video game companies during the fourth generation of video game consoles in the early 1990s. Sega Technical Institute developed the next three "Sonic" games, plus the spin-off "Sonic Spinball" (1993). After a hiatus during the unsuccessful Saturn era, the first major 3D "Sonic" game, "Sonic Adventure", was released in 1998 for the Dreamcast. Sega exited the console market and shifted to third-party development in 2001, continuing the series on Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation systems.