Bully 2 is back in development, it’s claimed

Bully 2 is back in development and was even lined up for a possible appearance at The Game Awards, it’s been claimed.

Industry insider Tom Henderson stated on Twitter on Monday that he was aware of people being shown a ‘playable’ version of the game.

“Bully 2 was expected as a potential surprise reveal at The Game Awards last week after some people have been shown some material alluding to a reveal soon,” he explained.

“Information is a bit blurry at the moment, and I have to be quite vague here, but if I hear more I will report on it.”

He later added: “Some people saw a ‘playable version’ just a couple of weeks prior to The Game Awards (not the canned version).

“Like I said, information is blurry at the moment. But I thought it was worth reporting on, as there’s something definitely ‘going on’ to do with the series.”

Henderson’s tweet was seemingly corroborated by Game Informer’s associate editor Blake Hester, who tweeted the Bully logo and the message: “New story coming 2 you soon”.

However, Hester has since protected his Twitter account and his colleague, Game Informer video editor Alex van Aken, has claimed that it isn’t a reference to Bully 2.

VGC reported in 2019 that a sequel to Bully was in development in the early 2010s but fizzled out after 18 months of development.

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser and a handful of his most trusted developers wrote a script for Bully 2 as early as 2008, which contained the first few scenes and an outline of the rest of the story, according to sources with knowledge of development.

Further reading

Bully 2: Rockstar’s sequel ‘fizzled out’ after ’18 months of development’

Planned Bully 2 ‘was playable, but never got off the ground', sources claim

The story starred Jimmy, hero of the first game, and featured many returning characters. It began at Jimmy’s step-dad’s house in the summer at the end of a school year, a source told us.

A second well-placed source told VGC the team never decided where the full story would take Jimmy, and that depicting some of his time back in education, perhaps at school or college, was one option being discussed.

If these new reports are true it would appear that Bully 2 is back on the table, albeit without the involvement of co-writer Houser who resigned from Rockstar in 2020.