According to an interview with producer Noritaka Funamizu, the first concept of Biohazard Outbreak, as it was known originally, was before the release of Resident Evil 2 in 1998. With growing interest in the concept of network gaming over consoles, Shinji Mikami, the director of the first Resident Evil, suggested to Funamizu that he should have a try. Early on in the design, Funamizu made a small multiplayer minigame where the player must survive the longest; the team decided to remove it due to its failure to encourage team work (players would instinctively run away from the horde and be slaughtered rather than help one-another to ensure their own survival), arguing that what made Resident Evil scary was its lack on multiplayer, forcing gamers to play on their own. The team then chose tha