GTA 6 Will Never Make Up For Bully 2’s Cancelation

Rockstar’s putting its resources into the long-awaited GTA 6’s development, but this comes at the cost of sequels for its other IPs, such as Bully.

Rockstar has decided to move all of its resources toward the development of Grand Theft Auto 6, and while the next entry in the franchise is highly anticipated, it has come at a cost with other anticipated sequels such as Bully 2 falling by the wayside. Considering Rockstar Games’ releases over the years, it’s easy to see how its portfolio seems to have shrunk down to only two major franchises: Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

Even between these two franchises, it’s been evident that Rockstar has focused most of its attention on Grand Theft Auto. 2018 saw the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 which received exceptional reviews for its incredibly detailed and immersive Western open world, and its wonderful storytelling. Rockstar also released an online mode, Red Dead Online, which was supposed to be a Western counterpart to the already successful GTA Online, but fans would argue that Red Dead Online wasn’t given a fair chance with very few updates, and Rockstar all but abandoned the title completely by 2022.

Related: How Rockstar Lost Its Direction After Bully 2’s Cancelation

Rockstar’s Released A Greater Variety Of Games Before GTA 5

Rockstar’s portfolio has always seemed to consist of high-quality games, and up until 2013 the company released games for a variety of series like Bully, GTA, Table Tennis, Manhunt, L.A. Noire, Red Dead, Midnight Club, and Max Payne. Since 2013, however, Rockstar has only released GTA and Red Dead titles and has either canceled or not revisited its other acclaimed IPs, making for a far less diverse, and ultimately less interesting portfolio of games. With Rockstar announcing that it would be solely focusing on GTA 6‘s development, and with that title being years away from being released, this doesn’t seem to be something that will change any time soon.

This is a shame, as the other IPs’ fanbases were keen to revisit their characters and worlds in sequels. One example of this was Bully, Rockstar’s title about Jimmy Hopkins’ time at Bullworth Academy and his efforts to rise through the ranks of the school system one social clique at a time. Bully‘s gameplay is reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto games from the era, but swaps out guns for slingshots and grenades for stink bombs. Former Rockstar developers confirmed that a sequel, Bully 2 was canceled, and revealed some of the elements of the game, such as character systems that improved upon the first game’s social rivalries, and a much more ambitious scope for the sequel, hopefully to rival GTA.

Rockstar’s Series Other Than GTA Can Benefit From New Technology

The diversity in Rockstar’s portfolio seemed to end alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, meaning that technology has moved on two whole console generations since then, and the studio could take full advantage of these developments across its various IPs. What was revealed about Bully 2 indicated that the interactivity with its improved character systems could have offered far better AI-based NPCs to interact with, making for a richer experience thanks to modern development tools. Given how much the social groups and their rivalries were a huge part of Bully‘s story and gameplay, this would have been a natural progression for the series.

Another example of a sequel that could have benefited from the newer development tools to hand is Rockstar’s 2011 detective title L.A. Noire. One of L.A. Noire‘s key selling points was its use of facial motion capture to create its interrogation scenes, offering detailed facial recreations that players could read to determine whether a character was being truthful or not. These scans do look somewhat dated by today’s standards – which shows how far game development has come in just over a decade – but with photorealistic scans, as well as full performance and motion capture now commonplace, including in GTA 6, a sequel could truly thrive in this era of gaming.

2023 will see the 10-year anniversary of GTA 5, and the past decade has seen the title, as well as others in the series, receive several re-releases, with most of Rockstar’s efforts seemingly going into building upon the hugely profitable GTA Online instead with new missions and features. Given the success of the Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar choosing to back its main moneymaker over titles such as Bully is unsurprising from a business perspective, but the lack of any real diversity in its portfolio as a result is truly disappointing.

More: Bully 2 Aimed To Do What GTA Still Hasn’t Done

Source: Rockstar Games/YouTube