Bully sequel could go 'a lot of directions,' says Rockstar

Rockstar's Dan Houser says that he'd like to make a Bully sequel, but we wouldn't see Jimmy Hopkins grow up to be a Grand Theft Auto protagonist.

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Bully has become a cult favorite, trading the studio's usual crime drama motifs for a simpler story about a kid dealing with the pressures of teenage life. Rockstar's Dan Houser says he'd still love to make a sequel, though it wouldn't go in the direction fans might think.

"I know I want to [do a sequel]," Houser told Polygon. "Well, hopefully, you never know. There's a lot of directions I could go with that one, it's funny."

Houser said he was frustrated by the backlash over the game, and how the studio never got to really explain what it was about. He thinks they were too busy defending against accusations of encouraging bullies to show that it's actually a story about "being this tough kid that wasn't sucked into that kind of world and was friends with some of the weaker kids, but by no means a saint."

And on that note, he doesn't think a sequel would feature protagonist Jimmy Hopkins growing into a Grand Theft Auto protagonist. "I never saw him as being that level of degenerate," he said. "I saw him as a bad teen, because he comes from a tough home, who could go either direction. He's not going to be a carjacker. He's too white collar for that already. He was an unpleasant soul, but he had a heart. To some extent you could say the same was true of [Grand Theft Auto 4's] Niko in a bizarre way. But [Jimmy's] not trying to burn down the school, he's more trying to stand up to injustice."

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  • reply
    September 25, 2013 8:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Bully sequel could go 'a lot of directions,' says Rockstar.

    Rockstar's Dan Houser says that he'd like to make a Bully sequel, but we wouldn't see Jimmy Hopkins grow up to be a Grand Theft Auto protagonist.

    • reply
      September 25, 2013 8:07 AM

      i had high hopes for this game but never enjoyed it.

    • reply
      September 25, 2013 8:26 AM

      Bully is one of my favorite games ever. Finished it (5?) times on the PS2 and XBOX 360. I was very late to the PS2 party and I dove in with Bully as my first game purchase (along with the original God of War, and the original Guitar Hero).

      The collector's edition box is proudly displayed in my office. Never did pump up the dodgeball that came with it, I should do that now that I have a proper bike pump.

      The XBOX 360 version was really worth the upgrade in graphics and extra classes biology dissection! and missions.

      A Shacker worked on Bully (the boss battle sequences if I recall).

      The soundtrack was also really great, and I've heard pieces that remind me of it in Red Dead Redemption.





    • reply
      September 25, 2013 8:30 AM

      I had such a clear direction for a sequel years ago... I should just go make the pixel art indie version of that.

    • reply
      September 25, 2013 10:08 AM

      My preferred direction for it would be to go straight to the trash. Lame game.

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