‘Bully 2 was in development for over a year, but did not get off the ground’

Rockstar reportedly worked on Bully 2 for about a year and a half between 2010 and 2013, and there was a limited playable version. However, the game did not take off and the developers were put on other projects.

Video Games Chronicle writes about Bully 2’s development citing several anonymous sources involved in the project. It is not clear why development has stopped. Bully 2 was never actually announced, but according to the article, Rockstar New England would have been working on it.

The playable demo version would have been made in the RAGE engine, which Rockstar has also used for GTA 4 and 5, Max Payne 3 and the Red Dead Redemption games. The playable portion would be a “very small” portion of the game, with open world gameplay.

According to the sources of VGC, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser wrote a script for the new Bully game in 2008 together with a number of developers. Just like in the first part that came out in 2006, Jimmy would get the lead role. Many other characters from the first part would also return. The information VGC has received matches that of YouTuber Swegta, who made a video about it in July.

The sources say Bully 2 never got “momentum” and so “bogged down”. The developers were then put on other projects. Rockstar has not commented on the story. It is possible that work on a new Bully game will be resumed later. In GTA Online and Red Dead Redemption 2, easter eggs can be found that refer to Bully. However, there are no concrete indications.

Bully was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and then also appeared for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PC. The game is about fifteen-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who is put in a strict boarding school by his mother and stepfather: the Bullworth Academy. There he has to maintain his position and command respect from different groups.