Bully 2 Has Already Been Made - And Scrapped
Bully 2 has been atop many fans' wish lists for years, and a recent report has revealed that there was a time that wish was almost realised. In the late 2000s, Rockstar New England was said to have been in the midst of development for a Bully sequel. This would be another open-world title that would push the boundaries of the tech within the world of a young boarding school student. However, as you may be aware due to the lack of Bully 2, the project never came to fruition.
Canis Canem Edit
Click to enlargeAccording to a recent report from Game Informer, Rockstar New England was heading up the project, keen to stand toe-to-toe with Rockstar North - the team behind titles like GTA 3. Rockstar New England, previously Mad Doc Software, had bounced around from studio to studio before being bought over by Rockstar. Upon joining the company they were assigned to a sequel to the boarding school hit Bully, giving the team a chance to prove themselves.
Bully 2 was reportedly going to be "three times" the size of the original Bully school map, and while it wouldn't be as big as the likes of GTA IV, you could enter every building, with one anonymous developer stating "if you could see it, you could go into it". Not only was the size intriguing, but Rockstar New England were also reportedly putting a lot of effort into the deep systems such as climbing, glass shattering and grass growing mechanics, and even an honour system similar to Red Dead Redemption, where the individual NPCs would actually remember your actions.
A Payneful Experience
Click to enlargeDespite a lot of excitement surrounding the game, Rockstar reportedly had other, more important games in the pipeline such as Max Payne 3. Eventually, more and more members from the Rockstar New England team were assigned to that game, never to return to Bully 2, eventually bleeding the project of its workforce. This allegedly led to numerous months of crunch as developers were harassed to work long hours and weekends.
While Bully 2 would reportedly have required another two or three years of development, multiple sources including a former analyst for Rockstar's New York headquarters, Marc Anthony Rodriquez, claimed that the "six to eight hours" of the game was playable, "fully" rendered" and all.
It isn't entirely clear why Rockstar decided to completely phase out development on Bully 2, and there are still rumours within Rockstar that a build of the game exists. Even all these years later, fans are clamouring for a Bully sequel, and while some may still hold out hope, it seems unlikely that the version from the folks at Rockstar New England will never see the light of day.
