Tweet
First released back in 2006, Rockstar’s Bully marked something of an unusual detour for the typically gritty studio. Trading Manhunt’s snuff for harmless fluff and blood-soaked streets for schoolyard cliques, the title quickly found a cult following among PS2, and later Wii & Xbox 360, owners. Now, seven years from the game’s debut, news has emerged to suggest a Bully 2 title may at last be in development.
Filed one week ago today, a trademark application bearing the name ‘Bully’ has been spotted online, requested by none other than Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive.
The hot document – available to view in its entirety at the United States Patent & Trademark Office site – covers use of the franchise’s title in combination with a slew of different formats, including:
‘animation in the field of video games and computer games’
‘computer and video game programs and software’
‘downloadable digital materials’
‘wallpapers’
‘screensavers’
‘digital music files’
‘graphics’
‘videos’
‘films’
‘multimedia files’
‘live action programs’
‘motion pictures’
Two sample images were also provided alongside the application, the first of which reads ‘Bully’ in a nondescript typeface, while the second displays a screen grab of the original game’s ‘Student Downloads’ web page. The writing in question fails to match Bully’s own choice of font, but the typeface could perhaps signify an upcoming change in logo design.
Interestingly, a similar search of the British patent office yielded no fresh results. While documentation was available for the original Canis Canem Edit (the game was re-branded in Britain following an outcry from parent groups) no Bully 2 or Canis sequel info was apparent from trawling through the site.
So, is it possible that Rockstar is simply renewing an old license on the franchise, or could there be more at work here? The last time we encountered the title, it was headed to the Playstation Network in November of 2012. A month before that, Rockstar Vice-President Dan Houser told Gamasutra that development on the game could potentially begin after Rockstar Vancouver’s completion of Max Payne 3.
“We knew that we didn’t want to start doing the Bully sequel instantly … even through it is a property that, like Max, we adore and might come back to in the future. There was just no impetus to do that then…So we said, ‘you can do Max, and then we will see what we can do with Bully.’ So it was really waiting for the slot to open up and the group to open up to and at least start work on it.”
Given Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s recent comments over Rockstar brand loyalty, one Bully sequel may not be enough to satisfy the successful publisher. If the series continues to iterate on the schoolyard formula, rather than follow original protagonist James ‘Jimmy’ Hopkins onto college, the franchise could potentially sustain itself indefinitely.