Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games has reportedly cancelled a $53 million Bully 2 project that was seemingly well into development. According to an unofficial report, this is the first time Rockstar has developed a sequel and cancelled it during development.
During its latest earnings call, Take-Two spoke with investors on previously cancelled games. CEO Strauss Zelnick didn’t confirm that the cancelled game was Bully 2 however, he touched on a lot of points that indirectly confirmed the game’s much-rumoured cancellation.
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Zelnick claims that Rockstar spent a lot of time and resources on this game. However, after months, if not years into developments, the studio wasn’t reaching the “level of excellence” it needed to. Zelnick says:
“When we talked about our robust pipeline, over a multi-year period, we did say that certain titles would not make it. And this was one of them,. here’s not much else to say, ultimately. We devoted a lot of time and resources to the property. Our standards are incredibly high. We’re trying to build tentpole franchises. And in certain instances, we don’t have the confidence that something will reach that level of excellence, and therefore we can’t proceed.”
Even though Zelnick didn’t confirm the cancelled game was Bully 2, well-sourced and reliable industry insider Nick Baker seems to think the cancelled game is indeed a sequel to the classic high-school franchise.
On Twitter, Baker claims that he hinted at a cancelled game in a podcast last year. Unfortunately, at the time he could not confirm what it was in fear of cease and desist lawsuits. Baker now says that the game he was referring to back in 2020 was indeed Bully 2.
I was told last year that they cancelled Bully 2. I mentioned a cancelled game on the podcast a few weeks back that I didn’t want to publicly mention. That was it. So I’m guessing that’s the cancellation this refers to. pic.twitter.com/GrrJg2a6Yt
— Nick (@Shpeshal_Nick) November 3, 2021
Rockstar Games and Take-Two have yet to confirm the cancellation was Bully 2 but rumours of the game’s possible shelving have been circling for a few years now. If Baker reported on this already in 2020, then Take-Two most likely canned the game in 2019 already. Oh well…
