Red Dead Revolver originally began development with Capcom in 2000, when developer Rockstar San Diego was still known as Angel Studios. It started as "SWAT", a game with a four-person split-screen feature that allowed you to control four members of a S.W.A.T. team at once. Reportedly, after Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto watched the 1971 spaghetti western film "Blindman", the project quickly shifted to a western game, with "SWAT" now standing for "Spaghetti Western Action Title" before being renamed to Red Dead Revolver. After Angel Studios was acquired by Take Two Interactive in 2002 and renamed to Rockstar San Diego, they continued working with Capcom on the project until Capcom decided to cancel the game in 2003 due to a perceived lack of progress. Capcom eventually agreed to let Rockstar Games continue working on Red Dead Revolver the same year in exchange for having exclusive publishing rights in Japan.