While numerous reports in the past did make it obvious, more evidence has now surfaced to indicate that Bully 2 was indeed in development at one point. Unfortunately, the potential sequel hit a rut mid-development and has seemingly been shelved by Rockstar Games for the time being.
According to information obtained through an anonymous insider, VGC claims that a script for Bully 2 was written and passed as early as 2008. Jimmy Hopkins was set to return from the original installment, along with many other characters. The new storyline was supposed to take place at either a school or college, with some of the early scenes taking place at the house of Jimmy’s stepfather.
Bully 2 apparently went into development somewhere between 2010 and 2013. Rockstar New England took the lead on the project and spent nearly two years to build a playable version described as a “very small slice” of the open-world concept. Bully 2 was being powered by the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, the same one used for both Red Dead Redemption installments, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto 4 as well as the most recent Grand Theft Auto 5.
The sequel never made it any further. Due to unknown concerns, which are assumed to be related to design, production of Bully 2 was set aside and developers that had been working on it were moved to other projects.
There’s no telling if Rockstar Games will be revisiting the franchise anytime soon. There does seem to be intent based on the many references to Bully 2 found in both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. For example, Red Dead Online was recently discovered to have a wanted poster for one Meredith Hopkins that was basically a reference to Jimmy Hopkins.
Based on what’s known so far about Bully 2, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Rockstar Games is probably focusing on prepping Grand Theft Auto 6 for the next generation right now. A leak from a year back has started to come true in past months and one of its claims was that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be releasing for PlayStation 5 during the holiday season of 2020. There have been similar reports elsewhere as well. Even if Rockstar Games assigns a small team to Bully 2, getting the sequel out in the next year would be unlikely.
