Bully on GTA+ Is Not a New Version, Rockstar Confirms

Bully launches on GTA+ today, August 20, and after various new ratings for the game caused some to wonder if a new version was on the cards, Rockstar has now confirmed that is not the case.

In a post on its support website, Rockstar revealed the differences between the versions of Bully included with GTA+ on each platform. PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 subscribers get the original PlayStation 2 version via an emulator, while Xbox Series X and S and Xbox One subscribers get the Scholarship Edition.

Here’s Rockstar’s explanation:

• Players on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 can download and play the original PlayStation 2 version of Bully via the PlayStation 4 rerelease and PlayStation 5 backward compatibility
• Players on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One can download and play Bully: Scholarship Edition via Xbox backward compatibility

(Bully: Scholarship Edition contains missions, classes, clothing items, and two-player online mini-games not included in the original launch version of Bully.)

So, no remaster or fresh version of Bully then, which will come as some disappointment to fans. Bully is Rockstar Vancouver’s much-loved open-world juvenile delinquent sim that first launched in 2006 on PS2. A sequel was once in development at Rockstar’s New England studio in the late 2000s, but obviously never came out. In November, the alleged leak of a database file for Grand Theft Auto 5 was found to include reference to the unreleased Bully 2, with some of its ideas making it into other Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption 2.

In April, Rockstar said LA Noire is also coming to GTA+ later in 2024, although there’s no release date yet. LA Noire is Team Bondi’s 2011 open-world game set in 1947 Los Angeles. As with Bully, fans have called for a sequel, although Team Bondi itself is no more.

All this comes with GTA 6 looming over the horizon. Rockstar has said it will come out fall 2025. It has yet to say what will happen to the existing GTA Online when it does.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.