Rockstar Games canceled Bully 2 in 2009; New details leak

Bully is one of the most beloved games from developer Rockstar Games. It’s incredibly unique with its private school setting which allows for a story and gameplay we’ve never really seen in a video game. It also allowed the open-world studio to flex their writing muscles in fun and creative ways by pushing their edgy humor at a whole new angle, one aimed at teenagers rather than primarily adults.

Bully garnered lots of praise from fans and critics alike but maybe didn’t rival the success of a Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption. That hasn’t stopped fans from begging for a sequel, though.

While we here at GameZone and others around the web have heard Bully 2 is Rockstar’s next game, that won’t be the first iteration of the game. According to YouTuber SWEGTA, a former Rockstar developer claimed Bully 2 was in development for Xbox 360 and PS3 for an unknown period of time and was canceled around 2009, just a year before Red Dead Redemption’s release.

Bully 2 in its original form focused followed Jimmy Hopkins on his summer break at his new stepdad’s “enormous house” which had step-siblings which seemingly acted as antagonists. This would’ve seen Jimmy in an all-new town to explore with a nearby summer camp. Whether he would’ve attended the summer camp or just been able to go visit it remains unknown.

New mechanics would’ve seen various pranks like a tripwire which used early physics from Red Dead Redemption, the ability to press your back up against objects like trees/columns and shimmy around it to stay hidden from people chasing you, and some sort of a climbing system.

The concept art that leaked two years ago has also been confirmed to be real, giving more legitimacy to leaks from that time period. There’s no word as to why Bully 2 was canceled but it’s heavily speculated that Rockstar was putting all hands on deck for Red Dead Redemption as it had a super troubled development.

It’ll likely be a while before we hear about the potential Bully sequel and it’s not even totally clear if they’ll continue going the direction that was previously planned. Game development is also something that changes radically very quickly so it could get scrapped again in favor of focusing on Grand Theft Auto VI or something else.