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Bully 2 never happened due to ‘bandwidth issues’ according to Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser: ‘You just can’t do all the projects you want’

28 September 2025

Bully? Pulp it.

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(Image credit: Rockstar)

While long eclipsed in technology and ambition, 2006’s Bully remains one of Rockstar’s most distinctive games, and it’s certainly the one I’d most like to see the studio take another stab at. Sadly Bully 2 was cancelled way back in 2009, and given how long it’s taken Rockstar to make Grand Theft Auto 6, it seems unlikely that they’d spare any resources for a Bully sequel.

We do, however, have an explanation from Rockstar’s cofounder as to why Bully 2 never saw the light of day. Speaking to IGN at LA Comic Con (via Eurogamer), Dan Houser explained that the project ended prematurely due to a lack of “bandwidth” among Rockstar management.
“I think it was just bandwidth issues, Houser told IGN. “You know, if you’ve got a small lead creative team and a small senior leadership crew, you just can’t do all the projects you want.”

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‘Consumers are not okay with okay’: Take-Two boss says BioShock 4 is taking so long because the company’s goal is ‘to make the best entertainment, not necessarily the most entertainment’

It’s a fairly broad explanation, but it falls roughly in line with previously stated reasons for Bully 2’s. Back in 2021, former Rockstar New England employees explained that Bully 2 was in development for between one year and eighteen months before Rockstar’s management canned the project.

Rockstar Founder Dan Houser confirms why BULLY 2 never happened.He blames it on “bandwidth issues”.Houser further adds “If you’ve got a small lead creative team and a small leadership crew you just can’t do all the projects you want.” pic.twitter.com/OMOBi7cOe5September 27, 2025

At that time, Rockstar was working on Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption alongside Bully 2, with many of Bully 2’s developers moved over to the other two projects by the time of its cancellation. While the vision for the game—which among other things would have allowed players to enter every building in its world—was never realised, some of the tech designed for its prototype did make it into subsequent game. These include dynamically breaking glass and the ability for NPCs to remember player behaviours—the latter of which was seen in Red Dead Redemption 2.
While Houser departed Rockstar back in March 2020, he says that his new company, Absurd Ventures, has encountered similar challenges that led to Bully 2’s cancellation. “How we’re structured at Absurd, we’re doing two projects with a fairly small team, and it’s been really trying to think through that. How can we do that and keep them both moving?”
As for what those two projects are, it’s not entirely clear. Absurd Ventures started out making American Caper and A Better Paradise, which Houser has previously described as “narrative worlds” designed to support different kinds of media. For American Caper, that means starting out with a graphic novel, the first issue of which is scheduled to release in November.

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A Better Paradise, meanwhile, debuted with a 12 episode audio drama last year, though it seems to have received a mixed response. Houser has since released a novel based on the podcast.
More recently, though, the company revealed the Absurdaverse, its new setting for an “action-comedy adventure game” which is apparently currently in development. It all seems a bit scattershot and lacking in direction, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these projects fall by the wayside, much like Rockstar’s ill-fated Bully sequel.

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Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad’s home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he’s always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he’ll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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MindsEye boss reportedly blames its failure on ‘saboteurs’ and says a re-launch is in the works, even as the entire development studio is at risk of layoff

GTA publisher boss says he’s ‘running scared’ despite billions in the bank and a GTA 6-sized financial nuke on the horizon: ‘We are looking over our shoulders’

‘Consumers are not okay with okay’: Take-Two boss says BioShock 4 is taking so long because the company’s goal is ‘to make the best entertainment, not necessarily the most entertainment’

A last-ditch attempt to save the Perfect Dark reboot fell through because Take-Two and Microsoft couldn’t agree who’d own the IP

‘We’re all still hungover’: Ghost of Yōtei devs celebrated GTA 6’s delay, which freed them from impending doom—’That was a great day’

Take-Two boss is really very confident that Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t be delayed again: ‘My level of conviction is very, very high’

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