Development

"Prior to the game's release, series' creator and producer Shinji Mikami was quoted stating that he wanted to retain the numeral progression for Resident Evil sequels debuting on PlayStation platforms, while installments debuting on other platforms would bear subtitles instead (note that this was prior to Mikami's decision to market the series to the GameCube exlusively)."

This is going to need a source as Mikami has said numerous times in interviews that the game was renamed from RE3 to CV not many months before release by Capcom despite his protests.  It wasn't his decision.