Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has opened up on why we never received a follow-up to 2006’s Bully.
Talking to IGN at LA Comic Con, House was asked why he never returned to Jimmy’s life despite Bully’s popularity and critical acclaim, and his response was both candid and probably a little frustrating for those who’d been patiently waiting for Bully 2, as he simply attributed it to “bandwidth issues”.
“I think it was just bandwidth issues,” Houser admitted (thanks, InsiderGaming). “You know, if you’ve got a small lead creative team, and a small senior leadership crew, you just can’t do all the projects you want.
“And you know, we certainly– how we’re structured at [Houser’s current studio] Absurd [Ventures], we’re doing two projects with a fairly small team, and it’s really trying to think through that. How can we do that and keep them both moving?”
Since its unveiling in June 2023, Absurd Ventures has announced two “universes” – American Caper and A Better Paradise – intended to form the basis of multiple transmedia projects, beginning with a graphic novel and podcast, respectively. Meanwhile, a job advertisement spotted in May 2024 confirmed Absurd’s first video game project is also in the works, and after a difficult year for Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios, a “core team” of around 20 employees decamped to Absurd this time last year, establishing a new studio now known as Absurd Marin.
As for Rockstar’s primary project at the moment? GTA 6 is currently expected to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 26th May 2026, following its not exactly unexpected delay earlier this year. And there’s little doubt it’s going to be big; as recently Take-Two confirmed, GTA 5 has now sold an astonishing 210m copies since its release 12 years ago, so it’s probably not unreasonable to presume its massively anticipated sequel will manage to match that and then some.
