100 Things You Never Knew About Resident Evil
7. Split-Screen Outbreak
Resident Evil Outbreak is often described as "ahead of it's time" considering it was a multiplayer, co-operative, online Resident Evil game that was stuck on the PlayStation 2. Just a few years shy of Microsoft's Xbox Live, online gaming on consoles was barely in it's infancy. Moreover, many regions that saw the release of the first Outbreak didn't even have online functionality.
It's been a bugbear with the game ever since, and a barrier for entry for those who want to play the game "as intended" (and without having to worry about the terrible AI of your companions).
But as it turns out, at one stage Outbreak was supposed to be completely playable offline. In fact, it would've beaten RE5 to the punch of being the first split-screen Resi if things had gone as planned. There's footage shown in E3 2002 trailer that shows the Flashback scenario being played by four survivors on one system.
Presumably the feature was cut due to technical limitations and because of the game's budget. Outbreak, being a spin-off, was already working with way less than, say, a Resident Evil 4, which would explain how the massive scope of the game shrank over time. After all, this launch trailer also featured footage of the unreleased "A Day in Raccoon" scenario that was set in a spooky motel.