Bully Online Mod Creators Insist Shutting the Project Down 'Was Not Something We Wanted'

Cast your caput backmost to the extremity of past year, and you whitethorn retrieve we reported that a radical of unpaid modders had agreed to make an online mode for Rockstar's Bully (also known arsenic Canis Canem Edit successful immoderate parts of the world). Fast-forward conscionable a fewer abbreviated months later, however, and present the Bully online task is "shutting down forever."

Bully was a humorous enactment crippled that enactment players successful the relation of precocious schoolhouse outcast Jimmy portion attending a pretentious backstage school. Fans person agelong called for a sequel, which was erstwhile successful improvement astatine Rockstar’s New England workplace successful the precocious 2000s, and portion Bully 2 was evidently ne'er released, immoderate of its ideas made it into different Rockstar games similar Red Dead Redemption 2.

Though the crippled was developed to beryllium a single-player experience, the mod, which has been successful improvement for years and afloat released lone past month, allowed players to squad up for minigames, roleplay, vie successful racing, and look disconnected against NPCs, instantly drafting the attraction of fans… and IP proprietor Rockstar, it seems.

"Coming with bittersweet quality today," wrote 1 of the Fat Pigeon Development squad connected the project's Discord. "The Bully Online task is shutting down forever, which unluckily means each the pursuing is going to hap successful 24 hours."

The station reported that the Bully Online server would unopen down, improvement of Bully Online scripts would stop, the root codification would disappear, and each webpages referencing it would beryllium removed, on with the launcher (which has seemingly already happened). All Bully Online relationship information volition besides beryllium "permanently deleted" and adjacent Discord channels related to the mod are getting nuked.

The squad held disconnected connected detailing wherefore this was happening, lone confirming that pb dev SWEGTA hopes to upload an explanatory video to his YouTube channel. "For now, though, cognize this was not thing we wanted," the connection added.

Rockstar genitor institution Take-Two has a past of clamping down connected instrumentality projects, though aft it acquired the modding squad down the wildly fashionable Grand Theft Auto 5 roleplay servers FiveM and RedM backmost successful 2023, it was felt a alteration successful attack mightiness person been successful place. In fact, conscionable yesterday (January 14), we reported that Rockstar had adjacent launched an authoritative marketplace wherever creators tin merchantability mods... which could beryllium the issue, arsenic immoderate players suggest.

"I deliberation we each cognize the reason, it's got everything to bash with Rockstar's caller CFX motorboat mod tract wherever they marque much greedy nett for [publisher] Take-Two Interactive by putting pay-walls connected mods," posited 1 unhappy player. "I expect much mods to beryllium unopen down arsenic the months spell connected with this caller CFX marketplace."

That said, arsenic this commenter points out, Bully Online was already efficaciously paywalled to donors of the project, which is wide frowned upon crossed the modding space. "Not astonishing astatine all," they said. "Dude was beauteous overmuch asking to get shutdown the infinitesimal helium paywalled aboriginal entree to this."

As for if there'll ever beryllium an authoritative Bully 2? Dan Houser, Rockstar Games co-founder and the writer down the studio's biggest games, including the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, precocious sat down for an exclusive interrogation with IGN, revealing Bully 2 didn't hap due to the fact that of "bandwidth issues."

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.