Especially in modern game development, it’s rare to see a studio launch a brand-new IP that does well critically and commercially and not look to capitalize on it with sequels. It happens, but it’s rare, especially when fans consistently ask the developers to give them a sequel to one of their favorite games. That’s what makes it so strange that Rockstar Games, which isn’t adverse to making sequels (just look at Grand Theft Auto), has yet to deliver a sequel to Bully 2. Fans want it, and sales would likely be exceptional, but Rockstar has continually punted on a new Bully game.
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Bully is One of Rockstar’s Best Games
Rockstar has become one of the best game developers in the industry over the last few decades. It consistently churns out hits that do incredible numbers, most teams can barely even dream of. Grand Theft Auto V is one of the best-selling games of all time, and Red Dead Redemption 2 won more Game of the Year awards than you can shake a stick at.
2006’s Bully doesn’t quite stack up with those modern games, but it is one of Rockstar’s best works. Players hop into the shoes of Jimmy Hopkins as he starts his journey through the halls of Bullworth Academy. If you haven’t had the pleasure, it’s essentially GTA mixed with a non-magical Harry Potter, which sounds about perfect for 2006.
Bully was a hit with critics, posting an 87 on Metacritic. It also sold more than 1.5 million copies. That’s not a lot compared to astronomical numbers Rockstar hit with GTA V, but that’s a solid number for a brand-new IP that was subject to controversy in the lead-up to its release, thanks to a few bad actors making assumptions about Bully‘s content.
Unfortunately, Rockstar has never gone back to the Bully well, despite fans making it clear they’d love to see a second game. The developers did release a remastered version, but that’s far from what fans want from the team.
Bully‘s Cancelled Sequel
While Rockstar Games has never delivered Bully 2, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t tried. In fact, a sequel was reportedly greenlit in the late 2000s. Apparently, a team of 50 to 80 employees was working on Bully 2, and the game map was roughly the size of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. There were also reports of Bully 2 incorporating new systems that would make player choice matter even more in the direction of the story.
By 2009, Rockstar New England seemingly had a vertical slice that had about eight hours of content. The hope was that the team was roughly three years away from the final version, but then several developers at Rockstar New England were laid off, effectively ending Bully 2‘s development.
Then, in 2011, Rockstar executive Dan Houser said in an interview that the team was considering a second Bully game. He reiterated in 2013 that he had several plans for Bully 2, but nothing official was announced. In 2017, concept art of a sequel leaked, but nothing further was announced.
Since then, we’ve heard nothing about a second Bully. After he left Rockstar, Houser called the cancellation a “bandwidth issue,” meaning Rockstar didn’t have the resources at the time to finish the project.
With Houser, one of the two writers on the first game, now gone from Rockstar, it’s hard to say if a second Bully will ever get made. Of course, many other developers worked on the first game, so it’s unfair to attribute Bully’s success to Houser, but without him pushing for it, it might be a tough sell for Rockstar.
Plus, the developer has slowed down its development pipeline quite a bit over the last decade. When Bully dropped in 2006, Rockstar was releasing new games nearly every year. Now, fans are lucky to get a new Rockstar game every five years. The developers know they make most of their money via massive multiplayer games, and Bully‘s private school-based story doesn’t fit that mold.
It doesn’t mean we’ll never see a second Bully. Rockstar knows the first game is incredibly popular and that fans have been begging for nearly two decades to get a sequel. Instead, the most likely result is that Rockstar might let another developer take on the Bully 2 project. That is, of course, pure speculation at this point, but it’s hard to see the main Rockstar Games team working on a smaller project like Bully 2 unless something drastically changes.
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