Originally a Resident Evil Sequel
The first Devil May Cry began as one of the earliest incarnations of Resident Evil 4. Hideki Kamiya, now co-founder of Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames, became the director of a planned Resident Evil sequel for the PlayStation 2 with his development team, dubbed “Team Little Devil,” after Resident Evil 2 shipped for the PlayStation in 1998.
Kamiya’s idea was to make the new entry a more “cool” and “stylish” action game with a dynamic camera system, rather than the prerendered backgrounds and fixed camera perspectives of past titles. The team even traveled to the United Kingdom and Spain to take pictures of Gothic statues and buildings. Producer Shinji Mikami eventually nixed the idea for straying too far from the survival horror genre, and opted for the project to become its own game.
Devil May Cry launched for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, while Resident Evil 4 launched for the Nintendo Gamecube on Jan. 11, 2005 with a PlayStation 2 port later that year.