First Bully screenshot

By Ellie Gibson Published 20 May, 2005

And a few more details.

Rockstar has released the first screenshot from Bully, its forthcoming third-person action adventure game for PS2 and Xbox.

Described as “an exaggerated take on life in the schoolyard”, Bully is set in the fictional Bullworth Academy - a cross between a posh boarding school and a juvenile detention centre.

As teenager Jimmy Hopkins your mission is to work your way up the school's complicated social hierarchy, without getting in trouble with the teachers or thumped by your peers along the way.

We're promised a “sprawling campus environment”, a complex and amusing storyline and open-ended gameplay, just for a change.

Bully is being developed by Rockstar's Vancouver studio and is slated for a release this October.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Chonk #1 7 years ago

    looks..."class" (had to say it!)

  • Kami #2 7 years ago

    OK, now it's sounding a little better, you can't just say you're doing a game on bullying and then leave people to guess at it - assumptions are all too easy. Something we're fast learning around these parts!

    But there are certainly some things which sound iffy still... the whole social heirarchy is nice, but I still think Rockstar may end up in hot water if they allow the player to beat up any weaklings or nerds or the like...

  • dadrester #3 7 years ago

    will this even ever see an eu release, what with the strict guidelines on violence against children in the media? any of you busy jurno's know anything about this?

  • #4 7 years ago

    Splendid ! Now i can relive my school days of threating children for their bus fair and pulling girls bra straps.Oh the glee!

  • nburcomb #5 7 years ago

    great, just what our industry needs - more critisism about irresponisble games. Watch the media have a field day. Especially announcing it on the day that the 16 girl suffering from temporary paralysis due to "Happy Slapping". Rockstar need to take thier role as a billion dollar publisher more responsibly IMHO.

  • Strawp #6 7 years ago

    nburcomb - have you not played Rockstar games before? Since the controversy of the first GTA this is what they've done on every release. It doesn't matter whether the game is any good or whether the content is controversial or not, it's going to get onto the cover of every tabloid in the weeks surrounding its release and that means big sales. Easy money!

  • Bezzy #7 7 years ago

    There's an excellent opportunity here to start doing some social-network style higher level game mechanics. The social topology could be used as a manipulatable political landscape, underpinning the rest of the game, and giving broader consequence to your actions. I hope this kind of idea is not passed up in favour of having superficial mini games and inciting controversy.

  • myrmican #8 7 years ago

    Skool Daze! Back to Skool!
    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Skool+Daze$&pub=^Microsphere$

  • #9 7 years ago

    "NEWSFLASH" "NEWSFLASH" "NEWSFLASH"

    The Xbox 360 "IS MORE POWERFUL" than the PS3!

    Goto the link below and all will be explained:

    htt p://xbox360.ign.com/articles/617/617951p1.html

    By the way, I'm going to post this on every comments page on this site; because this is the type of information Eurogamer doesn't want you to see because this site is bias towards the PS3!

    If get banned, so what! At lest some of you would of saw this news by then!

  • myrmican #10 7 years ago

    You retard. Read the damn article before you post it -
    We decided to put this Microsoft-provided information our undigested. Thus, enclosed is a Microsoft-made comparitive analysis. We have not alterted, added, or tinkered with the data. We have not interpreted the specs. We have pasted and cut this information from the email into our site and formatted it. Make of it what you will, but be clear we know Microsoft has clearly slanted this info, and we're not endorsing it, just printing their version. There is a difference.

  • #11 7 years ago

    And your point is?

  • The-Bodybuilder #12 7 years ago

    Erm, it's from microsoft?

    And I will be staying away from this game. IMO, rockstar are going too far. they know this will be the most wanted game in the playground, and now they are encouraging bullying?

    Will their be a mini game where you get to record kids being beaten up with your mobile phone?

  • #13 7 years ago

    Erm, and the PS3 specs were from Sony! So that make it even then!

  • Derblington #14 7 years ago

    No it doesn't you mong. If Sony did the same comparison it'd be a different result. You've missed the point about why people were making a fuss about the E3 stuff and you've done exactly the same thing. Let it drop now.

    As for this game, am i wrong in thinking it's GTA set in a school. It's be nice if Rockstar started doing some different types of games.

  • OnlyMe #15 7 years ago

    Looking forward to this. As myrmicam pointed out, this resembles Skool Daze a lot, and that's a good thing. I wouldn't say Skool Daze is a GTA-style game, as GTA wasn't even invented back then.

    As for the continously developing controversial titles, they probably had an overdose of cuteness back when they made Lemmings. Probably the cause of the drastic change of direction.

    There's another well-known company that went the other way around. Horrorsoft started out with (obviously) horror titles like Elvira and Waxworks. After they got sick of all the gore, they had a turnaround, and switched their name to Adventuresoft. With that name, they created Simon the Sorcerer.

  • el_pollo_diablo #16 7 years ago

    Erm...

    If it's an 18 certificate then what's the problem?

  • Artemus #17 7 years ago

    If it's an 18 certificate then what's the problem?

    Kids'll want it even more...?

  • The-Bodybuilder #18 7 years ago

    >"If it's an 18 certificate then what's the problem?"

    Yeah, just like how kids DIDN'T get thier hands on GTA.

    /sarcasm off

  • dk_rare #19 7 years ago

    Rockstar have just lowered themselves to the level of such games as "carmagaddon". This game was made for the tabloids, not for the gamer.

  • OldWormsFan #20 7 years ago

    School Daze again.

  • Floppy #21 7 years ago

    After reading the headline, imagine how disappointed I was to learn that Jim Bowen wasn't making a comeback into interactive gaming.

  • el_pollo_diablo #22 7 years ago

    >"If it's an 18 certificate then what's the problem?"

    Yeah, just like how kids DIDN'T get thier hands on GTA.

    /sarcasm off


    Well that's a combination of WHSmiths and "Xtreme PS2 Free Cheats DVD Gamer Monthly''s fault.