The first release of the PlayStation 2 version is actually an unfinished port. The development team was given two months to port the game, but before the deadline was up, the company's sales general manager asked to borrow a copy of the game and took it to production on that day. This sent the creator, Tomonobu Itagaki, into a deep depression and almost made him quit making video games. Soon after, Itagaki and his team went back to overhaul the game to create the much improved Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore.