Rockstar is gearing up for the launch of GTA 6, however, in fact, Grand Theft Auto isn’t the one collection the developer is understood for. Alongside the likes of the beloved Pink Useless Redemption video games, there are lots of followers of one other open-world journey from the studio: Bully.
Launched in 2006 and initially identified in Europe as Canis Canem Edit, Bully tells the story of unruly scholar Jimmy Hopkins getting out and in of hassle throughout a yr at Bullworth Academy. A smaller-scale, much less X-rated model of GTA, it launched to essential acclaim. However the street in the direction of launch was removed from simple.
“The event was laborious,” former Rockstar VP and author of Bully, Dan Houser, stated in a brand new interview as a part of our IGN30 Icons Collection. “The sport was in hassle all the time. It was troublesome. It was an out-there idea. We have been fighting it. I wasn’t positive it was going to be any good. We actually wished it to come collectively. It was actually enjoyable afterwards as a result of it got here collectively very well. The workforce did an incredible job. It was a type of actually robust sport on the finish. It type of got here collectively very late.”
Houser went on to clarify why the event of Bully proved such a problem, coming because it did simply over a yr after GTA: San Andreas. “New IP may be very nerve-racking since you’re doing one thing that nobody’s ever achieved earlier than,” he stated. “And significantly that sport, there was all of this controversy round it to do with the identify, or individuals misunderstood it once they’d by no means seen it. So I feel one of many challenges with that sport was it by no means acquired the eye it deserved. We have been too centered on attempting to at the least get individuals to inventory it or to not protest it earlier than it even got here out.”
The mid-2000s was an period when controversy adopted Rockstar video games every time one was about to hit retailer cabinets, whether or not it’s the snuff-film-fuelled ultraviolence of Manhunt, or the intercourse minigame mod, Sizzling Espresso, uncovered within the code of San Andreas. Bully was no completely different, with some members of the general public frightened about how its express content material would translate into a faculty setting.
“There was enormous hysteria round it,” Houser said. “We had to spend most of 2006 diffusing it, so we could not positively promote the sport in the way in which we usually would’ve achieved. I feel that did not assist it. I imply, that was the identical time as Sizzling Espresso, and it felt like issues have been imploding. It was very nerve-racking. And simply go to work every day, surprise who’s protesting you that day, and hope that issues can shake out correctly. I wasn’t instantly concerned. Fortunately, I used to be simply type of proper off to the aspect, and wasn’t instantly concerned in organizing most of that stuff. But it surely was actually nerve-racking for the individuals concerned.”
But it surely wasn’t simply exterior pressures that made the event of Bully troublesome. Rockstar additionally had to wrestle with how to make its fashion of open-world action-adventure work from the angle of a teen. The varsity setting meant driving vehicles and taking pictures weapons had to be parked to one aspect — two very important gameplay mechanics of any GTA.
“Builders have been fighting what the IP was, and we would made some adjustments, and a few individuals had moved on the market from New York, and it was beginning to get a bit higher, but it surely was nonetheless actually struggling,” revealed Houser. “It was actually, effectively, in the event you take away the vehicles and you’re taking away the weapons, what’s the sport? What are you doing? And the lead designer, who was actually gifted, started to put within the schedule and commenced to put within the classes, and it was beginning to get there.
“Then, one of many designers put this factor the place you could possibly stick a Put up-it notice on the again of a personality that stated ‘Kick me’ on it. Then an NPC would run up and kick them. And simply seeing that work, you are like, that is an incredible second. So then you definately’re, okay, we’re beginning to get someplace. So I feel that second was in all probability once I at all times keep in mind going, this IP that would not work in a GTA, clearly; it is not attention-grabbing. However as a child, and out of the blue it was the dimensions of the college and the dimensions of a child’s life, it began to really feel actually enjoyable.”
Bully was certainly very enjoyable. A lot in order that followers have been begging for a sequel ever since. Whereas concepts for a follow-up have been as soon as floated round at Rockstar, Houser revealed to IGN in 2025 that it by no means acquired off the bottom due to “bandwidth points.”
I do miss the times if you’d get a brand new Rockstar open world to roam round in yearly, however I assume sooner or later I’ve to surrender craving for the PS2 period. It was 20 years in the past, in spite of everything. Fortunately, Grand Theft Auto 6 is simply weeks away from launch.
For extra on GTA 6, you’ll be able to learn our full interview with Rockstar co-studio head Rob Nelson, how the sport will deal with the present political local weather, and why Dan Houser says he received’t be taking part in it.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.