BIOHAZARD 4 (cancelled 2000 game)

BIOHAZARD 4 (バイオハザード４) was the name of a cancelled entry to the Resident Evil series. It was later revamped as Devil May Cry and released in 2001.

Development
The game began development in 1998 with plans to be the first Resident Evil title on the then-upcoming PlayStation 2 console. Production was led by Hideki Kamiya, who returned to the director's seat soon after 1998's Resident Evil 2. The game's origins lied in Kamiya's earlier attempt at BIOHAZARD 3, which was cancelled in mid-1998 in order to move to the PlayStation 2 and its plot abandoned. It was later renamed BIOHAZARD 4 when Kazuhiro Aoyama's BIOHAZARD 1.9 -a working title- was renamed as the third entry.

The first year was primarily spent on research of what the project would be, and included a trip to Spain for the development staff to study Spanish architecture. It was also at this point the first character designs were made.

Focusing on the use of action alongside the horror themes, the direction that the project took was seen by other members at Studio 4 as being a progressively radical departure from the traditional Resident Evil concept of Survival Horror. After talks between Kamiya and Shinji Mikami, it was decided that the game should continue development but as a separate franchise, later known as Devil May Cry.