Forged your thoughts again to the finish of final yr, and chances are you’ll bear in mind we reported {that a} group of volunteer modders had united to develop a web based mode for Rockstar’s Bully (also referred to as Canis Canem Edit in some components of the world). Quick-forward only a few brief months later, nevertheless, and now the Bully on-line venture is “shutting down endlessly.”
Bully was a humorous motion sport that put gamers in the position of highschool outcast Jimmy whereas attending a pretentious personal faculty. Followers have lengthy referred to as for a sequel, which was as soon as in growth at Rockstar’s New England studio in the late 2000s, and whereas Bully 2 was clearly by no means launched, a few of its concepts made it into different Rockstar video games like Crimson Useless Redemption 2.
Although the sport was developed to be a single-player expertise, the mod, which has been in growth for years and absolutely launched solely final month, allowed gamers to staff up for minigames, roleplay, compete in racing, and face off towards NPCs, immediately drawing the consideration of followers… and IP proprietor Rockstar, it appears.
“Coming with unhappy information immediately,” wrote one among the Fats Pigeon Growth staff on the venture’s Discord. “The Bully Online venture is shutting down endlessly, which sadly means all the following goes to occur in 24 hours.”
The submit reported that the Bully Online server would shut down, growth of Bully Online scripts would cease, the supply code would disappear, and all webpages referencing it could be eliminated, together with the launcher (which has seemingly already occurred). All Bully Online account information may even be “completely deleted” and even Discord channels associated to the mod are getting nuked.
The staff held off on detailing why this was occurring, solely confirming that lead dev SWEGTA hopes to add an explanatory video to his YouTube channel. “For now, although, know this was not one thing we needed,” the assertion added.
Rockstar father or mother firm Take-Two has a historical past of clamping down on fan initiatives, though after it acquired the modding staff behind the wildly in style Grand Theft Auto 5 roleplay servers FiveM and RedM again in 2023, it was felt a change in method may need been in place. In reality, simply yesterday (January 14), we reported that Rockstar had even launched an official market the place creators can promote mods… which may very well be the subject, as some gamers counsel.
“I believe everyone knows the cause, it is acquired every little thing to do with Rockstar’s new CFX launch mod web site the place they make extra grasping revenue for [publisher] Take-Two Interactive by placing pay-walls on mods,” posited one sad participant. “I anticipate extra mods to be shut down as the months go on with this new CFX market.”
That stated, as this commenter factors out, Bully Online was already successfully paywalled to donors of the venture, which is broadly frowned upon throughout the modding house. “Not shocking in any respect,” they stated. “Dude was just about asking to get shutdown the second he paywalled early entry to this.”
As for if there’ll ever be an official Bully 2? Dan Houser, Rockstar Video games co-founder and the author behind the studio’s greatest video games, together with the Grand Theft Auto and Crimson Useless Redemption collection, not too long ago sat down for an unique interview with IGN, revealing Bully 2 did not occur due to “bandwidth points.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and guide with 15+ years expertise working with a few of the world’s greatest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.