Game development is messy. But, sometimes, that’s when the magic happens. Some of the most iconic titles we have today didn’t start out in the genre they ended up in. Sometimes, this was a business decision or a creative pivot. Either way, a surprising number of games completely changed genres during development.
I’ve poured over old interviews and developer diaries to find the most dramatic game swaps, and a few completely caught me off guard. Here are some of the most surprising origin stories of games you may love.
Before it became one of the best survival horror games of all time, Resident Evil 4 was going to be something very different (and quite a bit weirder). In one early version that’s known as the “Hook Man build,” Leon was stalked by a ghost wielding a meat hook inside a haunted castle.
It played more like Silent Hill than Resident Evil, with hallucinations and jump scares replacing ammo conservation and zombies. Capcom scrapped thissupernatural approach, but reused its over-the-shoulder camera system, which went on to help redefine the action horror genre.
When I say Borderlands used to look like a Call of Duty knockoff, I’m not exaggerating. The early builds had muted colors, military-style guns, and barely a hint of personality. Then, about halfway through development, the team took a massive creative leap and switched the entire art style and vibe.
That pivot led to theloot-shooter RPG hybridthat we all know today. Without that massive shift, Borderlands might have just been a dusty shooter added to the pile.
No, that’s not a typo. Originally, Devil May Cry was literally Resident Evil 4. Capcom tasked Hideki Kamiya with rebooting the franchise for the PS2, and he delivered a slick, fast-paced action game starring a superhuman named Tony. The problem was that it was far too combat-heavy to feel like Resident Evil.
So, rather than toss it out completely, Capcom spun the project into a different IP. That detour gave us Dante and basically invented the “stylish action” genre. It’s one of those “happy accidents” that drives so much of the industry.
Originally, Splatoon was just another Mario spin-off. Nintendo EAD originally prototyped the game as a paintball-style shooter where Mario characters blasted ink at each other. But the team decided the mechanics deserved a fresh identity, so they built one from the ground up.
So, instead of the Koopa Troopas and red caps, we got Inklings and a gloriously chaotic multiplayer. The result? A brand-new Nintendo IP that somehow made shooters accessible and family-friendly.
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Back when it was still called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, this game was supposed to be a darker, more stylish Kingdom Hearts-like action RPG set in the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. It was led by Tetsuya Nomura, and early trailers gave off strong emo-prince-meets-urban-fantasy vibes.
But development dragged on for alongtime (nearly a decade), and by that time, Hajime Tabata took over, and the game morphed into what we know as Final Fantasy XV. It shed its Kingdom Hearts spin-off roots and adopted a road trip format, leaning harder into open-world mechanics.
Before Fox McCloud ever set foot on Dinosaur Planet, this game was an original IP by Rare for the N64. It had more in common with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time than it did with barrel rolls and Arwings.
You originally played as Krystal and Sabre, two separate protagonists with full-on dungeons, puzzles, and sword combat. But after Nintendo stepped in, the project was reworked for the GameCube and repurposed into Star Fox Adventures.
Back in the day, Fortnite was a scrappy little co-op tower defense game called Save the World. You scavenged during the day and defended your forts at night from Zombie-like creatures. It was niche but a whole lot of fun.
But oncePUBG exploded in 2017, Epic took a wild turn: within just two months, they spun up Fortnite: Battle Royale. That genre shift turned the game into a cultural phenomenon. It’s easy to forget that the Save the World mode still exists.
This one still stings. Prey 2, as originally revealed in 2011, looked like a slick open-world shooter where you played as a space bounty hunter tracking down alien fugitives on a Blade Runner-style planet. Then, radio silence.
Years later, Prey resurfaced. But this time, it was an immersive sim developed by Arkane Studios, with no connection to the original game. The bounty-hunting angle was completely gone and replaced by Shock-style exploration.
When Spore was first teased by Will Wright, it looked like a deep, science-driven simulation of life’s entire evolutionary arc, all the way from a single-cell organism to space-faring civilizations. The early demos showed realistic cell behaviors and biology.
But, as development went on, the game shifted to a much more accessible, cartoon-like experience. By the time it was released, Spore was a quirky sandbox game with very simplified mechanics.
This is probably the most dramatic glow-up on this list. The original Team Fortress 2, revealed in 1999, was aiming for gritty realism, complete with military roles, voice radio commands, and even player ranks. It looked like Counter-Strike in camo.
Then, Valve went quiet for years. When the game finally did launch in 2007, it reemerged as a cartoonish team-based shooter. It was almost a completely different game, but it is also one of the best pivots in FPS history.
