Rockstar Co-Founder Finally Explains Why We Never Got a Bully Sequel

For nearly two decades, it's been one of the great unanswered questions in gaming: Where the hell is Bully 2? Well, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has finally given us an answer, and it's not nearly as conspiratorial as you'd hope.

Speaking at LA Comic Con, Houser was asked why Rockstar never returned to the critically acclaimed world of Bullworth Academy. His response was a dose of cold, hard, and frankly frustrating reality: it all came down to "bandwidth issues".

Not Enough Hands on Deck

According to Houser, the simple truth is that Rockstar's core creative team was just too small to tackle every project they wanted to. It wasn't a lack of desire, but a lack of manpower at the top.

"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," Houser admitted in an interview with IGN. He related it to the structure of his new studio, Absurd Ventures, where they are carefully managing just two projects with a small team to avoid spreading themselves too thin.

The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Room

Houser didn't need to spell out what those "bandwidth issues" really were. While fans were clamoring for another trip to boarding school, Rockstar was busy building the two biggest and most profitable franchises on the planet: Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

Let's be real. When your last game, Grand Theft Auto 5, has sold an absolutely obscene 210 million copies, it's pretty clear where the company's focus is going to be. A beloved but comparatively niche title like Bully was never going to win a fight for resources against that kind of behemoth.

So there you have it. The dream of Bully 2 wasn't killed by a lack of ideas or passion; it was killed by a spreadsheet. In the world of AAA game development, it's a story as old as time. The projects that make the most sense don't always get made; the ones that make the most money do