E3 is coming up next week and companies are going to be announcing all sorts of new games. While we know Rockstar is hard at work on Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s possible the studio may be developing a second game as well.
As found on the Game Informer website, there is a listing for Bully 2: Kevin’s Back Jack. While this may be a terrible title (more on that later), it seems Rockstar could be developing a sequel to the schoolyard action/RPG/life sim/whatever it was. The listing, since removed, was originally found by reddit user methAndgatorade. A screenshot of it was captured by user I3andaIR, which can be viewed below.
Before we start getting excited about a new Bully game, Game Informer tweeted out that the listing was a mistake, and there was no news about a Bully 2.
You might be seeing reports we have reported Bully 2 exists. This is in error. We have not heard anything about a sequel to Bully.
— Game Informer (@gameinformer) June 8, 2017
So now it comes down to what do we believe more: is Game Informer covering their tracks after an accidental slip, or is all this just a simple misunderstanding? Let’s dig in.
To start, the listing on the site mentions that Bully 2: Kevin’s Back Jack is a PS4 game releasing in the fall. If Rockstar were to make a new Bully, the game most certainly would NOT be a PS4 exclusive, unless Sony paid out the nose to get it. The counterargument here is that this listing could simply be for the PS4 version of the game, with a separate listing for the Xbox One version. For example, you can see here that there’s a Friday the 13th: The Game listing for both Xbox One and PC.
A fall release date is also somewhat suspect. Rockstar is notorious for announcing games, delaying them, and keeping fans waiting. Just look at Red Dead Redemption 2: the game was announced a year in advance, and has already been delayed once into 2018. Granted, there’s still plenty of time for Rockstar to announce Bully 2 and delay it before it’s released, but the company still isn’t known to announce games with such a short amount of time until release.
The game’s name can be seen as evidence to support both sides of the argument. It’s one thing if this was a basic listing mentioning a generic “Bully 2” title. That could be viewed as a simple placeholder or a name that might have been used for testing out a feature on the Game Informer website. However, the listing specifically mentions the title Bully 2: Kevin’s Back Jack. That’s an incredibly specific game name, and not something that would get slapped onto a title for no reason.
However, the game name is pretty terrible. Rockstar hires some incredibly smart and clever people; I would hope that after months or years of development time a better name could be thought up than “Kevin’s Back Jack.” There isn’t even proper punctuation in there.
After looking at all the clues, I’m still torn as to if this is a real listing or not. The PS4 exclusivity is either a huge red flag or just a misreading of the listing. The game name is so incredibly specific it would be hard to fake, but it also seems so bad it wouldn’t be real. The release date could be an honest attempt by Rockstar to release a game shortly after announcing it, or it’s meaningless.
The only way to know for sure what is and isn’t real is to wait until E3 starts next week, and Rockstar either does or does not announce the game. Until then, stick with Player.One for all your E3 coverage.
So what do you think? Do you believe Game Informer that this was a weird mess-up? Do you think the listing is real? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
