Former developers of the studio shared how the sequel could have looked like and why it had never got to be released.
Game Informer's Blake Hester published an elaborate report on Bully 2 – a sequel of a third-person action-adventure game about a mischievous schoolboy developed by Rockstar Games. There, he revealed why the game had never seen the world. Hester spoke to six former employees from the studio, who shared what led to the sequel's collapse.
The original Bully was developed by Rockstar Vancouver, however, Rockstar New England was assigned to work on Bully 2. They were enthusiastic about the game, having a desire to make the sequel "sit alongside Rockstar games of the time, such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption".
The ambitious plans included focusing on characters and making Bully 2 "bigger and deeper than that of the original game". The studio was going to triple the size of the original open-world map. Although it still wouldn't have been as large as GTA IV's one, they were planning to make all the buildings enterable. The work on artificial intelligence was also immense – the player could interact with the characters, and they would remember his actions.
As a former game analyst for Rockstar’s New York City headquarters claims, Bully 2 was fully realized and rendered and was "at least six to eight hours playable". Unfortunately, the studio was pulled in other directions, and the people who worked on Bully's sequel got to assist in other Rockstar's projects like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. Along with it, the members of the studio's staff had to work overtime, which led to the working culture crunch, and many developers at Rockstar New England left.
These factors resulted in the fact that the sequel never came into being. It is still uncertain if the game is ever to see the light of the day. Nevertheless, the impact of Bully 2 is seen these days as some of its elaborations got to be used in the studio's games like Red Dead Redemption II.
You can find more information about Bully 2, how it may have looked like and why it never got to be released here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.