Bully (released in thePAL region asCanis Canem Edit;Latin for "dog eat dog")^[1] is a 2006action-adventure video game developed byRockstar Vancouver and published byRockstar Games. It was released on 17 October 2006 for thePlayStation 2. A remastered version of the game, subtitledScholarship Edition, was developed byMad Doc Software and released on 4 March 2008 forXbox 360 andWii, and on 21 October 2008 forWindows.Bully was re-released forPlayStation 4 available viaPlayStation Network on 22 March 2016. An updated version of theScholarship Edition, titledAnniversary Edition, was developed by War Drum Studios and released forAndroid andiOS on 8 December 2016.

Bully
NTSC cover art for PlayStation 2
Developer(s)	Rockstar Vancouver[a]
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Producer(s)	Jeronimo Barrera Steve Martin
Designer(s)	Mike Skupa Sergei Kuprejanov
Programmer(s)	Mike Slett Peter Grant
Artist(s)	Steven Olds
Writer(s)	Dan Houser Jacob Krarup
Composer(s)	Shawn Lee
Engine	RenderWare Gamebryo[b]
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2 Wii Xbox 360 Windows Android iOS
Release	17 October 2006 PlayStation 2 NA: 17 October 2006 EU: 25 October 2006 AU: 27 October 2006 Wii,Xbox 360 NA: 4 March 2008 PAL: 7 March 2008 Windows WW: 21 October 2008 Android,iOS WW: 8 December 2016
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player,multiplayer[c]

The game is played from athird-person perspective and itsopen world can be navigated on foot, skateboard, motor scooter, bicycle, or go-kart. Set in the fictional town of Bullworth, thesingle-player story followsjuvenile delinquent student James "Jimmy" Hopkins, who is involuntarily enrolled at Bullworth Academyboarding school for a year, and puts his efforts to rise through the ranks of the school system in order to put a stop tobullying. Players control Jimmy as he attempts to become more popular among the school's various "cliques", in addition to attending classes and completing various side missions. TheScholarship Edition includes a two-player competitive multiplayer mode that lets two players compete for the highest score in different classes.

Its expected violence and sexual content were initially controversial.Bully received positive reviews, with praise directed at the game's missions, narrative, character development, and soundtrack, though its presentation and glitches received criticism. The original version ofBully sold over 1.5 million copies and received multiple year-end accolades.

Bully is anaction-adventure game set in anopen world environment and played from athird-person perspective. The game's single-player mode has the player control a high school student—teenage rebel, James "Jimmy" Hopkins. Throughout the story, Jimmy progresses through 6 chapters and through the ranks of the school groups, archetypes include Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, Jocks and Townies. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Missions reward the player with cash, new items, and increase/decrease the respect of certain groups. If a group holds Jimmy in high regard, they will act friendly towards him (and have the option of being hired as "bodyguards" or "muscle"); if a group despises Jimmy, they will attack him on sight. Outside of missions, the player canfreely roam the game's open world, consisting of the fictional town of Bullworth, and has the ability to complete optional side missions.

When not performing missions, the player can attend classes, presented asminigames. Each course has five classes, which increase in difficulty, and passing all five will result in the player passing the course. Classes reward the player with new clothing items or abilities: for example, English allows the player to apologize to authority figures after violating rules, Chemistry allows players to create their own throwable weapons, Geography highlights special collectibles on the game'sminimap, and Gym unlocks new fighting moves. Not attending classes when they are available is considered a violation of rules, unless they have been completed, in which case they become optional.

The player can usemelee attacks and weapons to fight enemies. The weapons available includeslingshots, bags ofmarbles anditching powder,stink bombs,firecrackers (includingbottle rockets),baseball bats, planks of wood, andspud guns. Jimmy can run, jump, swim, climb, or use vehicles to navigate the game's world. The vehicles featured in the game include askateboard,scooters,bicycles, andgo-karts. The player can alsograb onto the back of a moving car while on a skateboard, but can't drive cars themselves.Bus stops located in various locations around the town allow the player toquickly travel back to Bullworth Academy. Should the player take damage, their health meter can be fully replenished using multiple methods, such as drinking sodas, which can be obtained from vending machines or dropped by enemies, and kissing certainNPCs after interacting with them. When the player's health is entirely depleted, gameplay stops and the player respawns at the nearest medical center.

If the player breaks rules while playing, the game's authority figures (prefects, policemen andorderlies) may respond as indicated by a "trouble" meter in thehead-up display (HUD). The levels displayed on the meter indicate the current level of severity. Authority figures will attempt to grab and subdue the player, who may fight back. The higher the severity level is, the harder will authority figures try to catch the player; at the maximum level, the player can no longer fight back, as they will be instantly "busted" should they be grabbed. If the player is busted, they respawn at the nearest police station or the school principal's office and all their weapons (excluding the slingshot, skateboard, and camera) are confiscated. If a class is in progress, the player will instead be taken to it and forced to attend (even if they have already completed it). Authority figures can subdue other students as well, should they cause trouble.

The game's multiplayer mode, exclusive toScholarship Edition onWii andXbox 360 andAnniversary Edition, has two players compete to gain the highest score in the same minigames used for classes. One player controls Jimmy, and the other Gary Smith.

Bully takes place in the fictitious town of Bullworth, situated in theNew England region of theUnited States. After being expelled from seven previous schools, the game's protagonist, 15-year-old James "Jimmy" Hopkins, is sent to the town's prominent privateboarding school, Bullworth Academy, for a year while his mother and her new husband go on their honeymoon. The school campus is designed in aneo-Gothic style, similar topublic schools and colleges in theUnited Kingdom and New England, such asFettes College inEdinburgh. The school itself is the game's primary setting, while the rest of the town is gradually unlocked as the story progresses.

Bullworth consists of four main districts: Bullworth Town, the town's commercial borough; Old Bullworth Vale, a suburb area where the town's mansions, beach, andfunfair are located; New Coventry, a run-down, urban-poor borough, consisting mainly of tenement housing; and Blue Skies Industrial Park, an industrial borough consisting of factories, industrial buildings, the town docks, and atrailer park. There is also the Happy Volts Asylum, apsychiatric institute located between the Blue Skies Industrial Park and the Bullworth Academy.

Because the game's story spans an entire school year, Bullworth's appearance and color changes as the seasons change between chapters, most notably during the third chapter, which takes place around theChristmas season.

After being dropped off at Bullworth Academy, Jimmy Hopkins (Gerry Rosenthal) meets the school's principal, Dr. Ralph Crabblesnitch (Ralph Gunderman), who urges him to "keep his nose clean". He soon befriends senior Gary Smith (Peter Vack) and freshman Peter "Petey" Kowalski (Matt Bush) and begins working with them to try and assert their dominance over Bullworth's various "cliques": theBullies,Nerds,Preppies,Greasers, andJocks. However, an increasingly paranoid Gary eventually betrays Jimmy and pits him against Russell Northrop (Cody Melton), the Bullies' leader, in an underground fight. Jimmy defeats Russell and forces him to stop picking on his fellow students, earning the Bullies' respect.

Over the following months, Jimmy works with Petey to take over the other cliques in an attempt to restore peace to Bullworth. He begins with the Preppies, but just as he begins to win them over, Gary manipulates them into turning against him. In response, Jimmy enters a boxing tournament hosted by the Preppies' leader, Derby Harrington (John Lavelle). Despite his victory, the Preppies refuse to accept Jimmy's dominance and fight him together, but are defeated. Turning his attention to the Greasers, Jimmy agrees to help their leader, Johnny Vincent (Rocco Rosanio), expose anaffair between his girlfriend Lola Lombardi (Phoebe Strole) and Preppy member Gord Vendome (Drew Gehling). However, the Greasers turn on Jimmy after he is forced to make amends with the Preppies by vandalizing the Greasers' territory. After Gary tips Johnny off on Jimmy's growing closeness with Lola, he lures Jimmy into an ambush but is ultimately defeated and surrenders Greaser leadership to him.

To take over the Jocks, regarded as the most powerful clique, Jimmy seeks the assistance of their main rivals, the Nerds. When they refuse to help, Jimmy defeats their leader, Earnest Jones (Jesse Tendler), and earns his and the Nerds' respect by guaranteeing they will never be picked on again. To ruin the Jocks' reputation, Earnest has Jimmy take inappropriate pictures of the school's headcheerleader, Mandy Wiles (Elena Franklin), which are then spread across town. However, Jimmy later removes the pictures out of pity for Mandy, earning her affection. Eventually, the Jocks are humiliated after Jimmy sabotages their bigfootball game and subsequently defeats their leader Ted Thompson (Alexander Cendese) in a fight in front of the entire school.

Having united all the cliques under his rule and restored peace to Bullworth, Jimmy basks in his newfound glory and respect, unaware that Gary is plotting to overthrow him. Gary convinces the clique leaders to pressure Jimmy into vandalizing Bullworth's town hall. He also recruits the "Townies," a group of former Bullworth students who seek revenge against the school, to play a series of dangerous pranks on the cliques so that they would blame Jimmy's poor leadership and turn on him. After informing Crabblesnitch of Jimmy vandalizing the town hall, Gary earns his respect and is appointedhead boy, while Jimmy is expelled.

Although Jimmy initially accepts his defeat, Petey encourages him to seek revenge on Gary. To convince the Townies to turn on him, Jimmy seeks the assistance of one of their members, Zoe Taylor (Molly Fox), who was expelled from Bullworth after accusing the school's predatory sports teacher and team coach, Mr. Burton (Michael Boyle), ofsexual harassment. After helping Zoe exact revenge on Burton, Jimmy storms the Townies' hangout with her and Russell's help, and confronts their leader, Edgar Munsen (Jan Milewicz). After defeating Edgar, Jimmy explains to him how Gary manipulated and used both of them to his own ends, earning the Townies' respect.

Meanwhile, Gary and his followers take Crabblesnitch hostage, sparking a full-blown war between the cliques. The Townies and Russell help Jimmy neutralize the clique leaders, allowing him to confront Gary in the main school building. Jimmy chases Gary to the rooftop, where they have a fight that ends with both of them falling off the roof and into Crabblesnitch's office. Once freed, Crabblesnitch expels Gary, fires Burton for predatory acts, appoints Petey as head boy, and reconciles with Jimmy by allowing him and Zoe to return to Bullworth. Outside, while his friends, teachers, and allies cheer on, he shares a kiss with Zoe.

Rockstar announcedBully in May 2005 for thePlayStation 2 andXbox with an original expected release date of October 2005.^[2] Early information released by Take-Two Interactive seemed to indicate that the player would be taking the role of a bully, and screenshots printed inElectronic Gaming Monthly showed the player-controlledantagonist administering a "swirlie" and throwing a punch at another student. However, the tone of the final game was different, with the player in the role of a problem student who stood up to and fought back against bullies, often bullying on behalf of the victims, or in self-defense.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game uses an advancedGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas engine throughRenderWare.^[3] Rockstar Vancouver decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and personality.

When developing the characters, the team aimed at recreating the state of being a child, and making it enjoyable.^[4] Parallels were made between Jimmy andCatcher in the Rye'sHolden Caulfield.^[5] Jimmy and Holden share a background of a difficult homelife and being thrown out of multiple private schools.^[6] Though the pompousschool principal Dr. Crabblesnitch is originally introduced as the main antagonist,^[7] this role was later given to Gary Smith, a student who initially befriends Jimmy. Gary is described as asociopath.^[8] He admits that he is anarcissist, as he considers himself smarter and better than everyone,^[9] and wants to run the school.

On 19 July 2007, Rockstar announced that a remaster would be released for theWii andXbox 360, subtitledScholarship Edition.^[10]Rockstar New England, then called Mad Doc Software, led development with the Xbox 360 version whileRockstar Toronto ported it to the Wii. The Wii and Xbox 360 versions were released on 4 March 2008.^[11] AWindows port was later developed by Rockstar New England and released on 21 October 2008.^[12] The game features additional content which is not in the original version, including missions, characters, school classes, and unlockable items and clothing. Some small script changes have been made, and the highly compressed voice files of the original have been replaced with higher-quality versions. The random non-player characters also have more lines. In addition, single system two-player competitive multiplayer minigames have also been added, along withAchievements for the Xbox 360 version andWii Remote and Nunchuk motion and pointer controls for the Wii version. All ports of theScholarship Edition use the game engineGamebryo, rather thanRenderWare, which was used for the original version.^[13]

Bully received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according toreview aggregatorMetacritic.^[14]

Hyper's Daniel Wilks commends the game for its "clever script, some novel missions, and well constructed characters". However, he criticized it for "time dilation, dodgy camera, and generic mini-games".^[20]Joystiq's Bonnie Ruberg appreciated the casual nature in which the game allows Jimmy to kiss other boys;^[21] in 2013, Larry Hester ofComplex ranked Jimmy among the "coolest"LGBT video game characters.^[22]

As of 12 March 2008,^[update] the PlayStation 2 version ofBully had sold 1.5 million copies according toTake-Two Interactive.^[23][24]

Bully: Scholarship Edition was released on 4 March 2008 for Wii and Xbox 360, and 21 October 2008 for Windows. According to Metacritic, the Wii and Xbox 360 versions received "generally favorable reviews", while the PC version received "mixed or average reviews".^[25][26][27]IGN gave the Wii version an 8/10,^[39] while the Xbox 360 version received 8.7/10.^[40]1UP.com gave the Wii version an A− grade^[29] and the Xbox 360 version a B− grade.^[30] Gameplasma gave the Wii version a 9/10.^[41] The PC version, however, received mixed reviews ranging from a "Good" rating of 7.8 from IGN^[42] to a C− from 1UP.com^[43] who called it "[a] shoddy, untimely port that, inexplicably – considering its ridiculously long port time – feels like a rush job." GameSpot later rated it with a "fair" rating of 6.0,^[44] calling it "[a] lazy porting job [which] hindersBully's classic classroom hijinks".

The Xbox 360 version ofBully: Scholarship Edition was found to be unstable on some players' consoles, resulting in glitches, crashes, and performance issues. On 20 March, a patch was released,^[45] but there were reports claiming that the problems continued or worsened.^[46] When theWindows 10 version was released in July 2015, many users reported constant crashes and errors; many of these problems were addressed by an unofficial patch released by a fan.^[47]

• WonGameSpot's award for Best Original Music.^[48]
• Finalist forGameSpot's Game of the Year 2006.^[49]
• Nominations for "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Male" (Gerry Rosenthal as Jimmy Hopkins) and "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Female" (Maine Anders as Christy Martin) at theAIAS'10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.^[50]
• Gaming Target – "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006" selection.^[51]
• In 2010, the game was included as one of the games in the book1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.^[52]
• Bully: Scholarship Edition was nominated for the Best Voice Acting award for anXbox 360 game atIGN's Best of 2008 awards.^[53]
• The PlayStation 2 version ofBully received a "Platinum" sales award from theEntertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),^[54] indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.^[55]

Bully's title and gameplay was the subject of controversy among parents and educators who noted the adult content in previous Rockstar games, including theGrand Theft Auto: San AndreasHot Coffee minigame. Groups such asBullying Online and Peaceaholics criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying, although they raised their objections before the game was released to the public. The player may also choose to kiss select girls and boys in the game, which the ESRB was aware of when rating the product.^[56] Classification boards generally restrictedBully to a teenage audience: the United States–basedEntertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) gave the game a T rating,^[57] theBritish Board of Film Classification gave it a 15 rating, theAustralian Classification Board rated it M,^[58] and the New ZealandOFLC restricted it to people 13 years of age and over.

In 2007,Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten most controversial games of all time.^[59]

Bully was banned inBrazil.^[60] In April 2008, a Brazilian judge prohibited the commerce and import of the game.^[61] The decision was based on findings by the state psychology society which stated that the game would be potentially harmful to teenagers and adults.^[62] On 23 June 2016, however, the game was officially rereleased in Brazil.^[63]

While British Labour MPKeith Vaz argued thatBully be banned or reclassified as rated 18 in the UK before its publication,^[64] the game was released rated 15.^[65]Currys andPC World, both owned byDSG International, said that they did not wish to sell the game in the UK because it is "not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image". The statement lists what Currys believes is "the explicit link between violence and children" as the reason behind the ban. Despite this decision, other high street retailers includingGame,HMV, andVirgin Megastores announced intentions to stock the game.^[66]

Prior to both the ESRB's rating and the release ofBully,Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit attempting to have the game banned from store shelves inFlorida. Thompson declared the game a "nuisance" and "Columbine simulator".^[67] Thompson's petition, filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit Court, asked forWal-Mart andTake-Two Interactive to furnish him with an advance copy ofBully so he could have "an independent third party" play the game and determine if it would constitute a public nuisance in the state of Florida, in which case it could be banned.^[68][69] Take-Two Interactive offered to bring in a copy and let both the judge and Thompson view the game in the judge's chambers on 12 October 2006.^[70] On 13 October 2006, Judge Ronald Friedman subsequently ruled in favour of shipping the game, noting that there was no content in the game that was not already on late night television. Thompson responded to the ruling with a fiery speech directed at the judge.^[71] When given a preview build, the mainstream American media took a generally positive view of the game. Press coverage described the game as free-form, focusing on building a social network and learning new skills from classes, with strictly enforced punishments for serious misbehaviour.^[72]

In November 2006, Michael Pachter, managing director of research forWedbush Morgan Securities, predicted thatBully would not sell well enough over the upcoming holidays to warrant a sequel.^[73] However, when his prediction turned out to be untrue, Pachter apologized to Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, calling the sequel a "possibility".^[74]

During the development ofBully: Scholarship Edition, Mad Doc Studios was acquired by Rockstar in April 2008 and renamed to Rockstar New England. As Rockstar New England, the studio finished offBully: Scholarship Edition as well as assisted Rockstar's other studios in supporting theDLCcontent forGrand Theft Auto IV, and in support ofRed Dead Redemption.^[75] Near the end of this period, Rockstar had greenlit early production onBully 2 at Rockstar New England. Rockstar New England had created a vision forBully 2 that aligned with Rockstar's larger direction in developing games with higher prestige, which had started withGTA IV,Red Dead Redemption andL.A. Noire, incorporating new narratives and technology to make it a more character-driven game.^[75] According to former Rockstar New England employees speaking toGame Informer, the entire studio of between 50 and 80 employees had been working onBully 2 at one point, developing it as an open-world game with a map three times the size from the originalBully and approaching the size of the world inGrand Theft Auto: Vice City; while the map did not have the scale ofGTA IV, the developers were planning several deep systems that would make the map feel bigger, such as having many more buildings that could be entered on the map.^[75] Rockstar New England also planned to incorporate more artificial intelligence in the game so that player choices would have more impact later in the game. Several other new technology systems were developed by the studio, which ended up in games such asMax Payne 3 andRed Dead Redemption 2.^[75]

By around 2009, Rockstar New England had developed a playablevertical slice of the game in place with working versions of these new systems which they presented to Rockstar as a project milestone. Former developers stated this had about six to eight hours of content, consistent with other Rockstar projects, and was about two to three years from a final version.^[75] Though Rockstar did not state anything directly, something had changed in the studio's attitude according to former developers, leading up to Rockstar laying off about 10% of Rockstar New England in June 2009, and in 2010 they started pulling staff working onBully 2 onto supporting projects from other Rockstar studios, effectively cancelling further development onBully 2.^[75]

Rumors and comments related toBully 2 still persisted after this point.^[75] In November 2009, The Gaming Liberty interviewed musicianShawn Lee, who scoredBully, and was asked if he was scoring any more games in the near future; he responded, "Yes. It looks like I will be doing the soundtrack forBully 2 in the not so distant future".^[76][77]

In November 2011, in an interview with Gamasutra, Rockstar executiveDan Houser revealed that the studio might focus on a sequel forBully after the release ofMax Payne 3. "Contrary to a lot of people, we like to take a little bit of time at the end of a game before starting a sequel, so we can wait for the excitement or disappointment and everything else of the experience to shake down and really see what we should do in the next game," he said. "So we knew that we didn't want to start doing theBully sequel instantly at that second withRockstar Vancouver even though it is a property that, likeMax Payne, we adore and might come back to in the future. There was just no impetus to do that then. So we said, 'You can doMax Payne, and then we will see what we can do withBully."^[78][79]

In July 2012, Rockstar Vancouver was merged into Rockstar Toronto, and the staff was offered to join a different Rockstar studio.^[80]

In September 2013, Dan Houser said he had many different ideas for aBully sequel.^[81] To date, this is the last official comment on aBully sequel.

On 28 August 2017, concept art rumoured to be from the development of a sequel leaked online; it purported to show new characters and a run-down suburban home along with a few other bits of art;Rockstar Games did not comment.^[82]

In July 2019, aRockstar New England ex-employee revealed that Rockstar had worked on a sequel for several months before shutting it down in 2009. He claimed to have worked on various game mechanics in the scrapped project and stated that the story would have featured Jimmy living with his mother and step-siblings in his stepfather's mansion during summer vacation.^[83]

In October 2019,Video Games Chronicle published a story based on inside sources corroborating that Rockstar had indeed worked onBully 2 for eighteen months before cancelling it. Production of the game however began in May 2010, shortly afterRed Dead Redemption was released, and eventually was discontinued sometime before the end of 2013 as the project did not get much traction in the studio. During this time, a reported small slice of a working game was built using theRockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). According to these sources, the studio had worked out some of the story but were not sure what period of time it would cover. One source confirmed the ex-employee's claims that the story began with Jimmy spending summer vacation with his mother and stepfamily. Rockstar Games refused to comment on this topic.^[84]

• OfficialBully homepage
• OfficialCanis Canem Edit homepage