Bully beats down October

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Aug 9, 2006 1:49 pm PT

Rockstar's controversial prep-school drama will be released this year; source says Xbox version bullied out of production.

When the word "controversy" springs up in a discussion about gaming, the name Rockstar Games can't be too far behind. With games like Grand Theft Auto, The Warriors, and State of Emergency in its portfolio, the publisher has been the frequent target of watchdog groups concerned with exposing younger audiences to violence.

Feathers were further ruffled when Rockstar announced it was developing Bully. The long-in-development game is set in a fictional prep school and stars a 15-year-old boy who must deal with all types of high school characters, including geeks, jocks, and bullies. Players will defend themselves against other students with weapons, but the fight scenes don't feature any blood or fatalities, reports Reuters.

Though few people outside of Rockstar have even seen the game, opposition toward the game's release has been very vocal, saying that impressionable youths will almost certainly engage in copycat schoolyard fights. The game has drawn protests from the Peaceoholics, a concerned youth group, and the British police, both of whom called for the game's ban.

Despite the obstacles, Rockstar Games quietly continued development of the game and will release it in October, according to Reuters.

"Finally Bully can speak for itself. People can look at the game and see what it is and what it's not," Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker told the news service.

The game was originally scheduled for release on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox but may now be a PS2 exclusive. A source told GameSpot today that the Xbox version, as speculated, has been canceled.

136 Comments

  • m30w_cP

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 7:00 pm PT

    dang too bad .. its on the wii tho and the developers at nintendo are just as uptight as the protesters... think about that one.

  • Rx_Nightmare

    Posted Sep 5, 2007 2:39 pm PT

    i pray to god that they release it for 360 because if one more angry whiney little fool starts complaining about this and that in video games and makes another good game get canceled im gonna kill someone

    Gcorndog the push pin is for scribling on the wood and im not quite sure what the pencil and paper clip is for yet

  • breakdown84

    Posted Aug 23, 2007 11:36 am PT

    Booooo they so should have released it for Xbox...Booo

  • terrarosenburg

    Posted May 21, 2007 8:02 am PT

    It isn't coming out on XBox is it.....*bursts into tears*

  • terrarosenburg

    Posted May 20, 2007 10:45 pm PT

    clockworkred said:
    Its coming to xbox on april 17 2007!!!

    Seriously?! Alright!!!

  • jasonvickers

    Posted Feb 2, 2007 5:21 pm PT

    how i wish this games didn't get pulled from xbox. should make a beefed up version for 360

  • clockworkred

    Posted Dec 4, 2006 6:33 pm PT

    Its coming to xbox on april 17 2007!!!

  • DanC1989

    Posted Oct 19, 2006 5:39 am PT

    Only 8 days, and I'll have this!

  • Maxx_the_Slash

    Posted Oct 6, 2006 12:56 pm PT

    Did Rockstar ever say WHY they're screwing Xbox gamers out of this game?

  • TehPizzaHut

    Posted Sep 6, 2006 7:49 pm PT

    It isn't Rockstar that lets the kids play it. An M rating means 17 years or older. Before that is at parents' discretion. Let parents decide what their kids can and can't play. There's such a thing as freedom of expression, and Rockstar knows that.

  • LexLas

    Posted Sep 6, 2006 10:34 am PT

    Wow, I can't believe to what extent they have taken this game. Very surprising but not unexpected.

  • tiusej1

    Posted Sep 6, 2006 5:45 am PT

    Skullkid360: "a pathetic game like Bully, created soley (and soul-less-ly, I might add,) to further Rockstar's label as a controversial producer. "

    I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd say he's refreshed that a game company wants to "cross the line" or break borders regarding game development. Sure, Rockstar is a controversial producer, but only insofar as their titles are unconventional - is Table Tennis controversial? Why shouldn't there be games with a Prep School setting? This sounds great to me. I teach at a Prep School and although I'd agree that parents should *always* monitor their children's access to media, there's no excuse to condemn games due to material that is controversial. I'll withhold discussion of souls.

  • gcorndog

    Posted Aug 29, 2006 9:00 am PT

    Has anyone explored the Bully website? When you go to the Bullworth Prospectus page, it takes you to a desk that has a school handbook placed on it. Notice the broken pencil, pushpin, and paper clip. You can pick up all of these items, but what for? Anyone locate some possible secrets about this site?

  • DarkSaber2k

    Posted Aug 23, 2006 6:08 am PT

    FYI, the official Bully site has been updated. They have a school prospectus, screenshots, a new trailer and some misc. videos up. It's looking very good indeed.

    LOL, I just scooped Gamespot!

  • TNTales

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 11:29 am PT

    Shame they pulled the Box version, I would liked to have given it a spin, though I find I don't care for R* games as much anymore.

    I don't mind the violence, but the increasing emphasis on sex and profainity (from San Andreas and games in general) is getting a bit tiresome and comes off (many times) as just trying to hard to be "edgy."

    I don't mind adult material, but I like it in the context of a good story like Indigo Prophecy. Even San Andreas was tolerable in that it told a good story.

    I just want to go back to the days of DOOM when you could melt the flesh off things without having to hear f-bombs every 5 seconds.

    As for content of games making children act violently, maybe the inverse is true. We live in a society that has taken life lightly and sex and violence are cultural staples (at least in the US, however we may deny it) and perhaps it's not games making kids violent, but a culture of violent people and kids enjoying violent games.

    Not everyone who plays MANHUNT has a snuff collection, but it's probably a fair bet that snuff afficionados enjoy MANHUNT. So maybe BULLY gets played by people who were gonna shoot up the school anyway, not the other way around.

    I

  • FlashNovice

    Posted Aug 19, 2006 2:01 pm PT

    Rockstar rOcKz!
    Too bad they pulled out the xbox version though... '_'

  • Meecha

    Posted Aug 18, 2006 1:27 pm PT

    lookin forward to playing this

  • chriscodyc

    Posted Aug 17, 2006 12:12 pm PT

    Games like Bully, God of War, and GTA can all be played by kids. Don't automatically assume (I'm looking at you desahra) that anyone young will be corrupted beyond repair by pixelated organs. I'm 14 and have been playing games like Grand Theft Auto before I was a teenager, and I've never even punched someone in the face before. The most I did was slap a guy in the back for saying that I was gay (especially since he's my friend, and has a tendency to say insulting stuff without care).

    Don't assume that because I'm under 18 I feel like shooting people and running them over in a bus.

  • MastaMule

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 11:33 am PT

    Oh man, that sucks, hopefully if it isn't released for X-Box at the same time it is for Play Station 2 they'll release it later in the year...

  • bossjimbob

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 2:19 pm PT

    Quote: Danzig777666 "xbox 360 sux"

    Glen Danzig sucks.

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