Rockstar Rumored to Have Worked on Bully for Nintendo DS and The Warriors for GBA

Rockstar apparently cancelled both because they weren't "really seeing good returns on Nintendo."

By Marc Deschamps

Over the last few years, Rockstar has been showing an impressive amount of support for Nintendo Switch, bringing over games like Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition. It's a big contrast to past consoles, which saw limited support from the company. However, it seems that Rockstar did have two games that were in development for past Nintendo systems, but were ultimately cancelled: The Warriors on Game Boy Advance and Bully on Nintendo DS. According to a source for Time Extension, the GBA version of The Warriors was nearly complete at Rockstar Leeds, but the company worried after other games failed to find success on Nintendo systems. 

"We were going for four-player co-op using the link cable and stuff. We finished the game. It was actually f**king fun to play. But there it sits never to be released because that's when the PSP was gaining momentum and we weren't really seeing good returns on Nintendo. Nintendo at the time didn't like promoting M-rated games. We were comfortable in Sony land, so we went with The Warriors direct port on PSP," the source for Time Extension claims. 

That source went on to say that the GBA version of The Warriors would have used the same engine as the Max Payne game also released on the system. Readers should always take this sort of thing with a grain of salt, but Time Extension was able to corroborate these details with other former employees from that time. The same, however, cannot be said for the DS version of Bully. This game was just mentioned by one source, though others did claim that it seemed "plausible." That game would have apparently reused the engine for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, "but it didn't make it too far." 

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A lot has clearly changed since those days. Nintendo has gotten a lot more comfortable promoting M-rated games on Switch than they ever were with other consoles; this month saw the company announce an M-rated first-party game called Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, which is due out in August. That's a stark contrast to what we saw on platforms like GBA and DS, where M-rated games were few and far between. It's unfortunate that games like The Warriors will never see release, but at least Rockstar seems a lot more confident supporting Nintendo platforms these days! 

Are you disappointed that these games were never released? What Rockstar games do you still want on Nintendo Switch? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

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