Most people that grew up in the 2000s will remember it as an iconic time for video games. The 2000s gave us some amazing titles, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and The Sims. Nonetheless, there’s one game in particular that gained a lot of praise because of its narrative, and character development – Bully.
In fact, the nostalgia-inducing Bully had fans everywhere downright frothing at the possibility of Bully 2. Understandably, we’ve decided to investigate whether there’s truth to any of these rumors, and hopefully find out if there will ever be a Bully Sequel.
In case you’re also dying to find out if you’ll get to see Jimmy Hopkins again, keep reading.
The popularity of 2006’s Bully
There’s no denying the popularity of the 2006 action-adventure game. Bully’s engaging gameplay and easily relatable narrative had most of us glued to the screen for hours on end.
James ‘Jimmy’ Hopkins
Source: https://youtu.be/XnBJlxLVop0
Played from a third perspective, Rockstar Games’ Bully has you navigating its open world on skateboard, foot, you name it. In Bully, we get to see our favorite juvenile delinquent, Jimmy Hopkins, slowly rise through the ranks of Bullworth Academy, in hopes of putting an end to bullying. Aside from attempts to become popular amongst various cliques, the game has Jimmy, aka you, attending different classes and completing side missions.
Bully 2 speculations
With the remastered classic Grand Theft Auto Games, Rockstar Games fans got to enjoy a lot of content throughout the year. However, rumors of Grand Theft Auto 6 and a Bully 2 have recently started spreading like wildfire, and there’s only so much our little gamer hearts can take.
All this started with Rockstar releasing a potential teaser in December 2021. Rockstar did the same thing to announce Bully in 2005 via the Electronic Entertainment Expo, while it was still in secret development. We’re sort of hoping history repeats itself. Basically, Rockstar altered the logo on their website to resemble the Bullworth Academy crest, therefore foreshadowing the game’s release. Over the last few weeks, a logo very similar to that one appeared on the website once again. This, in turn, led to the development of complex conspiracy theories about the Bully sequel.
Easter Eggs in Red Dead Redemption 2
Then, there’s also the easter eggs in Red Dead Redemption 2. It can’t all be a coincidence, can it? The hidden easter eggs only fueled curiosity, but we can’t help but think if there’s some hidden meaning behind it all.
First, the players earn a trophy upon completing Red Dead Redemption 2, and it’s called ‘Endless Summer’. That just so happens to be the name of the post-ending chapter in the Bully. Freaky, right?
Another easter egg is a unique weapon that appears in RDR2 – Calloway’s Revolver. An engraving ‘Canis Canem Edit’, Latin for ‘Dog Eat Dog’, is on the weapon’s barrel. Once again, this is a direct Bully reference – the title under which the developers originally released Bully in the PAL copy. The phrase in Latin pretty much sums up Jimmy’s experience at Bullworth Academy with bullies everywhere, practically ruling the school hallways.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, there’s a short side mission where you use the said gun to clear the bar of a horde of rats. Yet another direct reference to Bully, or more precisely, the Rats In the Library story mission. You pretty much do the same thing, but instead of a gun, you use a slingshot.
Rumors that GTA overturned the Bully Sequel
The following piece of information might further upset Bully fans. In 2017, developers canceled the Bully sequel in order to focus on GTA 6. It’s a hard pill to swallow, we know.
Two former Rockstar Games insiders, Tez2 and Yan2295, have the tendency of leaking juicy details about Rockstar’s previous or future endeavors every once in a while. Recently, Tez2 stated that the GTA 6 pre-production phase started way back in 2015, but it slowed down drastically in 2017 due to the required workload for both Bully 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2. So, in order to lessen some of it, they sadly decided to drop Bully 2 and instead focus on
Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2 a year prior to its 2018 launch. Yan2295 also backed up Tez2’s claim.
This wasn’t the first time they canceled the Bully sequel. On the contrary, Bully 2 was canceled twice before due to similar problems, both in 2009 and 2013. Fact is, most of us will take this pretty hard, especially since it wasn’t the first time this happened. Well, you know what they say – it’s a dog-eat-dog world and we’re all just living it.
Will there ever be a Bully 2?
If you were hoping for an actual Bully 2 release date, you might be disappointed. A lot of Rockstar fans also share the same sentiment. So, what do we actually know about Bully 2?
Although there’s no official release date for Bully 2, a tweet from Tom Henderson, industry insider, suggests that we could see an official announcement soon. In yet another series of tweets, Hendersen also mentioned a ‘Playable version’ of Bully 2. We hoped to see this playable version at the 2021 Game Awards, but alas we were bamboozled once again.
But wait, there’s more. SWEGTA, another leaker, backed up Henderson’s tweets with his own, announcing some Bully 2 news in the near future. Meaning, there’s still a chance we get to see Bully 2 in 2022.
All of this, along with the logo change and multiple Red Dead Redemption 2 easter eggs, leads us to believe there might be some truth to these speculations. Be still our beating heart. We might get to see the Bully sequel after all.
Your Move, Rockstar Games
As much as we’d like it to be true, these are just speculations and rumors. We can’t really be sure if we’ll get to see more of Jimmy Hopkins or not.
Even though the developers already canceled Bully 2 several times, there’s still hope. The easter eggs, the altered logo, and the tweets are all proof of that. Having in mind how Rockstar Games announced and teased the original Bully, the timing is a little too suspicious.
To be honest, we’re totally hoping for a Bully sequel, but that’s not up to us. Rockstar Games, you know what to do. Time to breathe life into the Canis Canem Edit motto once again.
