Talha Amjad writes: "Rockstar has not confirmed whether Bully 2 is coming out or not, but we can still talk about aspects and features of the game that we would like to see."
Inside Rockstar New England's attempt to develop a sequel to one of Rockstar's most-beloved cult classics and the crunch issues and layoffs that followed.
Rockstar should just completely close Grove Street after that mess and reinvest that studio's money into New England's Bully 2 development.
This was a great read and really sounds like Bully 2 was going to be something special!
@porkChop Thanks for the clarification. That is indeed confusing since they are regularly tasked with Rockstar ports and CJ's street in San Andreas shares the same Grove Street name (although after looking it up, its actually named after Grove Street in Gainesville FL, where the studio is located. Coincidence or purposeful?). Either way, Rockstar is giving them money and should be cut off after that mess of a remaster!
@Rimeskeem
Grove Street Games did the Definitive Edition and Rockstar just published the Xbox, Playstation, and cellphone editions. Nintendo supposedly published the Switch edition of the trilogy. The original three games were developed by Rockstar and published by Rockstar.
Imagine the quality of the GTA trilogy if rockstar actually made it.
Instead they palmed off the responsibility to a external mobile dev team that had completed the mobile ports which had concessions that were made to the games to make them run on mobiles like the iPhone 4.
So no I don't think the trilogy took any resources away from rockstar aside from one guy to oversee it from rockstar.
imagine knowing what you're talking about, rockstar didn't technically make even the gta trilogy... they outsourced it.. which is why it was horrible
Well, way to ruin my New Years game informer.
Edit: Very interesting read behind Rockstar if you are a fan.
Still milking a game from 2013 has Rockstar sitting to easy street I remember when Rockstar would release a lot of games and not just milk one single game. Rockstar to me are not the same as they use to be scrapping Bully 2 when it has a large fan base. To me Rockstar are becoming the next Konami milking older franchises and not listening to fans. Release maybe the odd new title here and there to show relevance in the gaming world. Fans want GTA 6 but what do we get GTA V ported over to new gen of PS5 and XB Series X/S. I would not be surprised if Rockstar ported a cleaned up version of RDR2 to PS5 and Series X/S.
It’s been going on for years because people are willing to pay into it. GTA Trilogy for £50 just isn’t a bargain.
The GTA trilogy at any price right now is not worth it too many bugs. I own the original trilogy on PS2 and rebought San Andreas for $18 on XB1 I found at Walmart. The Definitive Edition may look nice but I was taken in by the bugs Cyberpunk had so I am not not going to repeat that mistake with the trilogy.
After GTA 5, that was it from Rockstar. It’s as though they ran out of cash and had to keep painfully squeezing out GTA 5, then out pops GTA Trilogy and now GTA 4. GTA 5 on PS5 and Series X is a bigger joke than April Fools. Bully was a bit rubbish to be honest. How about a new Smuggler’s Run or Manhunt? Maybe not a new Midnight Club. Same sort of situation with Sony, who keep releasing games that involve running about. Uncharted, Last of Us, Astrobot, Days Gone, Horizon Dawn and Sackboy. And Ghost of Tsushima. Bucket loads of games on PS1 and PS2 that Sony could bring back. Even Driveclub was left at the side of the road.
If a vertical slice that contains a playable 8 hours of gameplay was built it's a shame that it was never finished. Although they did estimate it was 3 years from completion.
Sounds interesting. Hope they do make it one day. Rockstar probably have all of their studios working on GTA VI at this point though
One of Rockstar's most fondly remembered games is PS2's Bully, but a sequel has just never materialised. Will we ever see one?
In an age where Dr. Suess is called a detriment to childhood development... yeah Bully 2 isn't happening.
They just need to rename it to fool the so-called "concerned parents"....or just moms...
maybe call it Pushy lol!
Yeah like people are carjacking in chicago because of GTA... not because ya know, it's chicago.. so lets ban gta 🤣
Hell even GTA is pushing it by todays standard.. I miss the 90's more everyday
They could, but the generation that was raised by South Park and the Simpsons suddenly became sensitive.
I feel like it has to do with a lot of the younger generation being told to "be a man" and "grow up" and at the same time hold in pent up frustrations through the course of their life including bullying in schools or at home and poor parenting. I want a bully 2, but not for this generation.
Well if being told to be a man is so harsh, I wouldn't want another WW2 situation to happen anytime soon. My grandparents generation were tough as nails, but today Millennials and Gen Z are weak AF. Our society has been demoralized though marxist ideology over the past 30 years, and there might be no going back unless the general population gets smart fast.
@sophisticated
Regardless, i wouldnt want them to release a bully 2 and it ends up turning into a shitstorm because people can't handle what the game is supposed to be. Kinda dumb to think about because of all the gorefest games we have like mortal kombat, gears, etc. But it's true. I do really hope we can get a bully 2 though. Or maybe it might not even be that bad if they announced it. Most of us are probably overthinking it tbh. I just don't wanna see companies going belly-up because people are offended by works of fiction.
Agreed. Hell, Dr Seuss, Mr Potato Head, and being white is getting cancelled. Imagine not enough of minorities in the prep school, these people will complain about anything...and it's why gaming and entertainment as a whole will never be as good as the past.
Creators have to walk on eggshells to make sure their content checks all the boxes.
No one complained about Dr. Seuss or Mr. Potato Head. They're private companies and made a business decision all on their own.
Thats called a free market economy.
@SpinalRemains138
It is a race to be the most woke. Big corporations are competing for the 1% of "woke" lunatics on twitter. It makes the other 99% of us have to deal with inferior quality. In reality they are just digging their own graves driving away all their customers.
@combolock
and the saddest part is it accomplishes nothing. because literally no one asked for any of it. We as a society pay too much attention to vocal minorities. Most people could give 2 craps about any of that. especially in todays post covid society
I would play it if the story was just as good as RDR 2 I have Bully for PS2 and also bought it cheap for the XB360. But if Bully 2 came out I wouldn't be surprised if you have the parents groups getting all pissy about the game and start saying think of the children.
It's crazy, Bully came out when I was in middle school... I enjoyed the game so much, but that was 15+ years ago. Not even sure if I want that anymore tbh. When KH2 released and I beat it, I was hyped for KH3. Fast forward 15 years and I couldn't enjoy it the way I did.
I'll definitely give it a shot, but it makes me wonder if I will enjoy another GTA. It has been 8 years and will be over a decade before GTA6 is out, if that. The single player of GTA5 doesn't appeal to me anymore. I still enjoy single player in GTA4 though. I'm not i to the zany characters like Trevor anymore. I want something real like Niko, CJ, or fun like Vercetti. Damn, I'm not even that old...
The name of the IP is enough to start a culture cancel movement in this day and age. Man I wish I had grown up in the 80's or 90's
The classic Rockstar irreverence made the first Bully charming, but it might not fly in changing times without a stronger narrative.
Bad idea?
It would be a breath of fresh air in this overly PC orientated society. It's the best idea to just stick to your vision no matter what. If you're worried about offending someone then you might as well throw in the towel. There will always be someone who's offended over something, especially in the snowflake social media outrage culture bubble.
While I support Billy 2, apprehension makes sense. Rockstar main goal is to make money. Hell a sequel under a different name would be a less PR hit.
Their goal would hardly be to make a loss that’s just stupid. Their goal is to make quality games and the reviews and sales show it. Quality sells
Rockstar thrive off of bad pr anyway. They are the poster child of "any pr is good pr".
Bully 2 > Bully 1 > Red Dead 2 > Red Dead 1
That’s what they should have made instead of Res Dead 2.
yeah with the Fragile Babied Culture we've turned into now. seems like a bad idea. people are such Butterflies now that you Dunno which direction you walk wont hurt there feelings ,i hope this is just a phase and will realize we cant live like this ,i feel like its mostly North America getting Weaker and will be pushovers when this generation grows up and have to lead the country. everywhere you look your stepping on glass with a blindfold on
The irony here is so many folks are offended over people being "offended". Which crowd is projecting offense?
Oh God we don't even have a confirmation and here we are. Quit writing articles about how sensitive you are. Instead write about what you would like to see Bully 2 accomplish even if you want to inject your agenda into.
There is a very high likelyhood that they're not even working on this. Not only that, but they're probably not even thinking about it. The first one didn't actually do that well, so they probably won't bother with a second one. If anything, they're likely working on GTA6.
They had several teams in the mid 2000s but since last gen lots of those teams have been silent
I'm not sure why you got downvoted.
Bullying is such a hot topic and is the cause of many children developing depression and even taking their own lives.
There's no way Rockstar makes this game. It would be the equivalent of making a game where you're a school shooter. The one indie dev team that did attempt that got panned back to the stone age. And rightfully so.
I don't think that's true, I've never played it so obviously I'm not an expert but as far as I know it's about standing up to bullies not being one yourself. In this time when kids are hanging themselves in their bedrooms because of bullying a game that empowers them might do more good than harm.
I'd love to see a new Bully - a small open town with no two characters which look the same as you work through an adventure whilst balancing it around your school/college/uni life. As long as they don't go full open-world and make it massive, then it'll be great (probably).
Agreed. Bit of a generalisation, but I find small open worlds are definitely better than big open worlds on a whole.
I was always waiting for the college years of Bully. Think it'd cool if they took a more serious approach to life on campus. Also unrelated, but N4G these mobile ads are annoyingly intrusive.
Sushimama, I’m offended by your comment.......
Nah just kidding, I’m not one of those sensitive pricks on Social Media 🤣
As much as we all would like to see Bully 2, there's no way in hell it ever gets made. Not with bullying being at the forefront of things like child depression and suicide.
This isn't being a "snowflake". This is just being realistic. Bully 2 will never get made.
Why wouldn't the studio responsible for games like GTA and Manhunt make a new Bully?
Have you ever actually played the first Bully? You're not actually playing as a character that is a bully, you're playing as a character that is a bit of a delinquent that eventually starts siding with the nerdy kids to take down the real bullies of the school.
The game is literally about standing up to bullies, not about being a bully.
Man people really should learn to read before they write
Writing this article was a bad idea. Just because there is a handful of mr and misses softies out there getting offended by everything doesn't mean that the vast majority of us should have to deal with your nonsense. Honestly the liberal game industry will probably turn Bully 2 into some left wing driven pile of garbage that the video game "journalists" will love.
I was horrified by the idea of Bully when it was first announced (I was 13 at the time...), but was persuaded to try it out, and I can honestly say it's one of the most refreshing games I've ever played, and paved the way for me to become less of a casual gamer.
I would welcome a sequel, regardless of how controversial it may seem.
Exactly. They can't have played it, because if they had, they would have known that you play as the character that takes down the bullies.
I'd be set for Bully 2 the first one is still a great game and it holds up well. Hopefully after Bully 2 arrives Rockstar will think about LA Noire 2 that game is my fave.
I agree with @sushimama
It's a poorly argued article in many ways. I take issue with these three bits in particular.
1: "The nature of our culture right now and the state of America, what with mass shootings, political misalignment, and prejudice still running rampant, another Bully installment may just fan the fires."
Well, it's only part of American culture and America itself is only part of the world. It's a big market sure, but saying you can't release a game globally because of the media outrage culture in the U.S is a bit unfair and restricting to all gamers, including those in America who would like it. Also, stop acting like games cause societal problems, i.e, fan the flames.
2: "Bully 2 needs to ignore Rockstar's past, taking away light-hearted jokes for hard-hitting facts mixed with that special irreverence only Rockstar can perpetuate."
The humour was a big part of the appeal of the original. What's the point in a sequel if you dump it? I also think wanting hard-hitting facts somehow mixed with 'special irreverence', whatever that even really means, would be more likely to be controversial than the light-hearted jokes. The author is seemingly asking for touchy subjects to be handled with irreverence in an article where he's saying that light jokes are already too controversial. What the hell? Makes no sense.
3: "Rockstar has had a knack for saying whatever, whenever. That doesn't fly anymore."
Says who and whose army? It does 'fly' if we support the game (assuming it's any good) and don't give in to the pc nonsense. Saying 'that doesn't fly anymore' (like it's an established fact or law) means that the author is actually capitulating and enabling the culture he feels will prevent this game from happening.....even though he himself would like it to be made. Again, bizarrely contradictory.
It's a P.R. nightmare but it will be an awesome game if Rockstar can make a heartfelt and witty game.
You do realize Bully is about taking down bullies and not about being a bully right?
yeah with the Fragile Babied Culture we've turned into now. seems like a bad idea. people are such Butterflies now that you Dunno which direction you walk wont hurt there feelings ,i hope this is just a phase and will realize we cant live like this ,i feel like its mostly North America getting Weaker and will be pushovers when this generation grows up and have to lead the country
It doesn't have to fit current times. Innovative, revolutionary and interesting ideas to begin always pushed what was possible.
I think a lot of people are playing down how devastating bullying is to its victims and just how prevalent it is in society. Having said that, I never felt that Bully was a game that glamorises bullying and in fact, while the protagonist is quite antisocial, I dont consider him to be a bully, if anything, you are the one taking on the bullies in the game.
I would love a sequel personally, and Rockstar have no issues as far as courting controversy is concerned, so just make the game and the fans will buy it, it should be quite easy to combat any negative press if the sequel is similar in tone and plot to the original as it wont be about bullying per se.
I think part of rockstars problem lately is overall obsession with raising the bar causing games like rdr2 to take 8 years to make. With GTA v turning 6 and nothing in between rockstars high production values come with a cost we get less releases.
Back in the PS2 days rockstar could churn out games yearly from San Andreas being their biggest production of two years post vice city we saw bully, the warriors, midnight club 3, manhunt 1&2 the GTA stories games all launch pretty consistently all flying the rockstar logo and the next gen hit
When we entered next gen it was clear that rockstar wasn't happy just churning average looking games out with exceptional stories and gameplay they wanted to be ahead of the curve with GTA IV looking better than anything else in 2008 we started down a path of exceptional titles but few and far between releases until the ps4 where we had nothing for years outside of a GTA v port and rdr2.
My point is rockstar don't seem to have the time to launch quirky games like bully anymore and I don't know if a game like bully could sell enough to cover the cost to make the game these days at least at the level rockstar want
Bullys provide an invaluable service to society. How else are children supposed to learn the virtues of overcoming weakness.
After EA continually dropping the ball with Need for Speed I'd rather have a new Midnight Club than Bully 2
Um no it's not, its certainly a risky idea since Bully never sold as much as a GTA game but the fans of the original would love it.
Don't worry. By the time they finish the game, there will be a new witch hunt and anti-bullying won't be a trend anymore.
Why don't you ask Jack Thompson if Bully 2 is a bad idea?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Oopsies he got Disbarred.
If they do make it I hope it's on the last
Don't want even older people making a game based in current times
Have you ever noticed that the pc twitter tw@ts are only a minority and make a lot of noise over nothing. I find it easier to ignore them or if necessary call them tw@ts and carry on as if they had died in the night.
Bully was a good game and a sequel with a good story would be great. As for the twitter tw@ts... f@ck 'em
It’s like they never played the first game. Yes your a delinquent sent there to behave but your NOT the bully the other people are the bully’s and you stand up to them
When games become political correct thats my end of this hobby. Rockstar studios are legends for being the first studio to set the bar on going against societys norms.
meh, rather see them just do a new open world IP
I would just love to see it just exist but I doubt it would.