Former The original Bully first hit store shelves in 2006 on PlayStation 2, but developed a negative reputation long before release. Politicians, anti-bullying organizations, and the likes of now-disgraced attorney Jack Thompson spent much of the pre-launch period calling for Bully's cancellation, efforts guided by a misunderstanding of the game's actual content.
Said content, which included protagonist Jimmy Hopkins' attempts to stop bullying on school grounds, has long left fans eager for another Bullworth Academy-set adventure. For years, rumors and speculation hinted that Rockstar had worked on such a project, though that bit of labor never bore any fruit. Now fresh details about Bully 2 have surfaced, thanks to information shared anonymously by former staffers from Rockstar's New York and New England offices. Apparently, the cancelled Bully sequel would've proven quite ambitious had it ever seen the light of day.
GTA IV's open-world map. Other developers insisted Bully 2 boasted a map three times the size of its predecessor. By modern open-world standards, this seems rather tame; however, the New England group planned on countering the smaller footprint by focusing on depth. Players would've been able to enter every in-game building, for example, with one ex-developer divulging that "if you could see it, you could go into it."
Unfortunately, this version of the next Bully adventure never made it out of production. Sources who spoke to Game Informer alleged that Rockstar began shifting its New England workforce away from the project in 2010, a decision fueled by a greater emphasis on the development of projects such as Max Payne 3, which launched in May 2012.
As of now, there exists no official word on whether or not a version of Bully 2 remains in active. In fact, Rockstar Games itself has never formally acknowledged the existence of the sequel by any stretch of the imagination. Hopes remain as high as ever that the 15-year-old franchise will eventually receive a new lease on life.
Source: Game Informer
