A new report from Game Informer, where the publication spoke to five former Rockstar New England devs and one from the NYC HQ (most requesting anonymity), details the history of Rockstar New England, the game it was developing, and how crunch dominated Rockstar Games back in the late 2000s. It should be noted that crunch at Rockstar all the way up to Red Dead Redemption 2 is no secret, but the company is allegedly taking steps to remove such practices.
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Rockstar acquired Mad Doc Software in 2008 and would rename it Rockstar New England. It was apparently standard practice for each studio to prove that it was worth its investment by working on a big, aim-for-the-stars title for Rockstar, which was transitioning from a multitude of releases among various IPs like Midnight Club to more spread out and bigger releases, like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead. For Rockstar New England, that title was Bully 2.
It was supposed to be bigger and better than the original in every way, with three of the aforementioned devs saying it would have been three times the size of the original Bully, but smaller than GTA 4. It was a plan to allow players to break into houses in Bully 2 as part of the deep systems Rockstar New England had planned. This resulted in an in-depth glass busting mechanic, which would find its way to Max Payne 3. Rockstar New England also wanted NPCs to react to Bully 2’s Jimmy Hopkins, something compared to Red Dead Redemption 1’s honor system. There was even a realistic grass growing system and a detailed climbing mechanic.
There was an estimated 6 to 8 hours of Bully 2 playable at one point, complete with missions involving go-karts, a beekeeper, a Kamp Krusty from the Simpsons-style mission, and more. There were Goonies and Porky’s references, NPCs walking around doing tasks, and much more. Of course, none of this ever made it to light.
Per this report, it seems the primary reason was developers who ended up leaving or being removed from this project. Once removed from Bully 2, Game Informer’s sources stated, there was no going back. This meant some devs were moved from the crunch on Bully 2 to the crunch on Max Payne 3 or Red Dead 1. Some ended up just leaving as a result of the crunch. And then layoffs hit Rockstar New England. No one seems to indicate any knowledge of if this version and development of Bully 2 was ever picked back up, or if a new one was, but one source said: “I think that it would be a missed opportunity for them to let it go forever.”
Bully 2 is not known to be in development.
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Source: Game Informer
