While Rockstar games may be mostly known for its Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, many gamers have fond memories of the studios' other titles such as Midnight Club and a genuinely unique spin-off open-world in the form of Bully.
For the uninitiated, Bully is an open-world game set in Bullworth Academy where players take control of a mischievous kid, Jimmy Hopkins, in his adventures. Bully had Rockstar's signature charm of a satirical take on the subject matter, which meant that fans of the Grand Theft Auto series felt distinctly at home, all while seeing an open-world game in an entirely new light.
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Bully released for the PlayStation 2 in October of 2006. The game also received a remastered port in 2008 for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PC. Both of these releases were well-received by the community and critics alike; however, Bully had been the subject of many heated debates regarding the depiction of bullying.
That didn't stop the game from becoming a sales success. While no exact grand total is known, the PS2 release itself sold more than 1.5 million copies. Steam has also sold more than a million copies of the game alone, and many fans believe that the total sales were over 6 million as of 2019. These sales figures might not have been on par with the studio's other heavy-hitters such as Grand Theft Auto 4, but it had likely made the studio content to invest further in the franchise.
Soon, after the game had been re-released in 2008, rumors started circulating about the release of the next game. The original composer of Bully, Shawn Lee, had stated in an interview that he would be working on the sequel very soon. After a brief period of silence, Rockstar's executive Dan Houser had commented on the possibility of Bully 2 not coming out too soon as the studio is against releasing sequels quickly.
In the same interview when Dan Houser talked about the future release of Bully 2, he also said that the responsibilities for developing the game moved over to Rockstar Vancouver, but it would only continue after the release of Max Payne 3, which came out in 2012. Following the release, the studio was merged with Rockstar Toronto, the studio behind Grand Theft Auto 5.
With these studios merged into one, seemingly for delivering Red Dead Redemption 2, Bully 2 would remain in silence as only rumors were heard after Grand Theft Auto 5's release. While nothing can be said definitively, many fans believe that the game hadn't begun much production and was canned as early as 2010.
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The voice actor for Bully's protagonist Gerry Rosenthal was interviewed last year about the matter, to which he said that he hadn't yet been contacted by Rockstar Games to do the voice work for a sequel. It could've been that the artist was under an NDA(Non-Disclosure-Agreement), but this was quickly debunked as he denied such a thing. However, a possibility remains that the next game wouldn't in fact feature the protagonist of the first game, remaining a mystery to this day.
There have been multiple reports that the project was canned sometime around 2010 after the team had spent almost 18 months working on the game. Many industry insiders also supported this story during their various interviews of the years, while some sources also stated that the game started production again in 2010, after the release of Red Dead Redemption, and the project was ultimately canned around 2015. It is believed that the game had to be canceled as Red Dead Redemption 2 and the next Grand Theft Auto required more resources than ever. Since then, the biggest leaks and rumors have been the release of some confirmed to be fake screenshots of the game along with some Easter eggs found in Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2, which could point to a sequel. History says otherwise, though.
Most signs point to an overall slim chance that Bully 2 will ever see the light of day. Rockstar's current portfolio looks to be developing the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Grand Theft Auto 6. While there isn't much information known about its release window, it seems that Rockstar is trying to mitigate its crunch culture now. Many fans have taken all the rumors regarding Grand Theft Auto 6 into account and are expecting that the game wouldn't hit shelves until 2025, or possibly even later.
However, there is still some chance that Rockstar Games is trying to keep the Bully franchise relevant. Recently, the studio's merchandise named R* Warehouse released a set of Bullworth caps. Many fans are speculating that Rockstar Games could eventually tease a second Bully game, but nothing can be said definitively right now.
Bully is available now on Android, iOS, PC, PS2, and Xbox 360.