I thought SoE did that?
Unclear whether it's SoA or SoE but it's definitely western part of SEGA.
Asian version still uses Fang the Sniper name
(until they changed into Fang the Hunter in Superstars of course).
But may be you're right it's SoE since considering UK is allergic the word "Ninja" in TMNT at the time, they could be allergic to the word "sniper" too.
As long as i get to play as the Avatar again, I'm cool with it.
Probably just for the Chaotix Casefiles and IDW Comic series. I doubt he's gonna show up in the mainline game again.