Rockstar "horrified" by Bully bugs

By Ellie Gibson Published 6 March, 2008

Working on a fix right now.

Rockstar has responded to reports of problems with the Xbox 360 version of Bully Scholarship Edition.

Gamers have been complaining that there are bugs in the game which cause it to freeze in the middle of play.

In a statement issued to Kotaku, Rockstar boss Sam Houser said the company is aware of the issue and is doing all it can to find a solution.

"It appears that some older 360s are experiencing frame-rate issues, freezes and other problems. You have our word that we never experienced any of this in QA - in any of our offices or at Microsoft," he stated.

"I am horrified, and we are now working around the clock to rectify this situation. Thanks to Neo-Gaf for bringing this matter to our attention. We love our games and put a huge amount of energy and care into making them all that they can be."

According to Houser, Rockstar "would never shove anything out the door - we never have and never will". He added, "We apologise to everyone affected for the inconvenience."

In the meantime, you could always opt for the Wii version of Scholarship Edition instead - or the PS2 game released back in 2006. That one was called Canis Canem Edit, you may recall, and won a fair bit of praise.

Look out for our review of both the 360 and Wii versions of Bully in the next few days.

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 (37) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • DonnieDarko333 #1 4 years ago

    I went for the 360 version over the Wii one this time! Damn it!

  • Psychotext #2 4 years ago

    For what it's worth... most people seem to be saying that the PAL version isn't as badly broken as the NTSC one.

  • symbiote #3 4 years ago

    360 CAN'T HANDLE PS2 PORT SHOCKER!

  • Garulon #4 4 years ago

    "Older 360s"? What a crock of shit. 360s are electronically identical, always have been.

  • symbiote #5 4 years ago

    "360s are made with selotape and used toilet rolls, always have been."

    Fixed

  • mingster #6 4 years ago

    wax brazillian and this relates to Bully how?

  • Yossarian #7 4 years ago

    "What a crock of shit. 360s are electronically identical, always have been."

    And yet they perform differently.

  • Mr_Bogus #8 4 years ago

    ...but some are more identical than others.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #9 4 years ago

    Vertical is supposedly better for cooling, but in my experience horizontal is definitely better for the disc drive mechanism. I keep getting Pro-Evo freezing if I spend too much time in the formation settings if my 360's vertical. If only I had enough room to lie it flat.

  • kestral #10 4 years ago

    It's said vertical placement allows better airflow so lower temperatures -> possible more durable console.

  • Psychotext #11 4 years ago

    @lavalant: It's not just old 360s doing this... that's just R* using the 360s reputation to cover their ass. Plenty of people that have never had an issue with any other game are having loads of problems with Bully.

  • sonmi451 #12 4 years ago

    hope they do a Bully sequel. was a cracking game.

  • Nylkran #13 4 years ago

    symbiote wrote:

    "360 CAN'T HANDLE PS2 PORT SHOCKER!"

    @ symbiote

    That is not the worse part, but that the Wii version of Bully seems to be able to handle it better.

    /chuckles

  • jaxon58 #14 4 years ago

    That's either poor QA or programmers just not listening to QA (which is usually the case). They can't say they never experienced these issues, they must have done.

  • CrumpledPaper #15 4 years ago

    Geez. I hope this doesn't have to GTA4! If they didn't catch it in Bully..who knows. I bet they're checking GTA4 right now. I wonder if it did have the same problem, if they'd delay the game? :|

  • GChris #16 4 years ago

    ""Older 360s"? What a crock of shit. 360s are electronically identical, always have been."

    And you know this as a fact, do you?

    Generally, consoles change quite a bit over their lifetime as the manufacturer seeks to reduce the cost of the components. Normally, the changes are such that they don't affect games, but occasionally a large change (such as the mini PS2) can produce issues.

    Given that originally the X-Box 360 had the red rings issue, Microsoft must have made some changes to overcome the issue. It's impossible to test the impact of every possible code variation when they change the hardware. I'm sure it's quite possible that Bully does something that behaves slightly differently on the old hardware.

    Have to laugh at people offering their own theories here, whilst discounting the one offered by the only people who've actually properly investigated the issue. Cynicism can occasionally go too far...

  • morriss #17 4 years ago

    I didn't think it was out until tomorrow.

  • rashes #18 4 years ago

    @WaxBrazillian

    Have you been playing the multiplayer? THats at least worth a 7. Till Vegas 2 comes along anyway.

  • kangarootoo #19 4 years ago

    ""360s are made with selotape and used toilet rolls, always have been."

    Fixed"

    Heehee.

    Sincerely,
    a 360 owner.


    "Older 360s"? What a crock of shit. 360s are electronically identical, always have been"

    Not true. Firmware gets revised all the time. There are probably about 8 revisions of 360 out there. Physically the same, but not "electronically" as you put it.

  • kangarootoo #20 4 years ago

    "Have to laugh at people offering their own theories here, whilst discounting the one offered by the only people who've actually properly investigated the issue."

    +1

  • Meho #21 4 years ago

    On top of that, the DVD drives in 360 are made by different manufacturers and they have different firmware. And this does sound like a DVD drive-related issue.

  • Meho #22 4 years ago

    Sorry, this was in reference to KT's explanation about firmware.
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/08 @ 10:58

  • miiiguel #23 4 years ago

    Does anyone knows how the PS3 version perform ?

  • grussbarbar #24 4 years ago

    I find it slightly disturbing that we seem to accept bugs on consoles more and more nowadays. The whole point of buying a console is that you won't have to deal with installation and bugs as much. Since there should be a very limited amount of different hardware out there, developers should have a relatively easy time to get rid of bugs, as opposed to the PC, where you'll have to prepare for a gazillion different possible set-ups.
    Rockstar's statement seems genuine, so I will believe their claim that they missed it. I do hope however, that they won't miss such things in the future, because I don't think they should. Every case of buggy software (by large developers) sets a precedent that bugs can happen on consoles, and I'd rather not have everyone think that is normal.

  • Whizzo #25 4 years ago

    Does anyone knows how the PS3 version perform ?

    There isn't a PS3 version of Scholarship Edition.

  • kangarootoo #26 4 years ago

    @grussbarbar

    Its true that crach bus in console games used to be an extremely rare thing. They are still very uncommon I should say, so I'm wary of relying on anecdotal evidence.

    I recall Driver 1 on PS1 was the first very buggy game I had ever seen on a console and it would still appear very buggy today, but my reaction at the time was different because it stood out, which probably says something about how things have changed.

  • back2funk #27 4 years ago

    @miiiguell
    There isn't one, but, the original 2 year old PS2 version works a treat upscalled on my PS3.

    I had to chuckle to myself at comments from Xbots who are now on the other side of their Ninja Gaiden comments.

  • miiiguel #28 4 years ago

    "There isn't one, but, the original 2 year old PS2 version works a treat upscalled on my PS3. "
    I have the "original", along with a few PS2's..., so I know that one. I want to play this one. Can we expect the definite PS3 version within a resonable time (read: less than 2 years) ?

  • GamesConnoisseur #29 4 years ago

    I think it the same issue that affect some X360 owners playing BioShock including me, it was more to do with harddrive caching system being problematic for some who see freezes or total stop when other never encounter them at all, both playing the same game of BioShock as a prime example.

    I believe Bully bugs amounted to the same thing.

    I am getting bored now with X360 'cant cope with PS2 port shocker!' but it is certainly something that should not have got past bug test and I have intended to get X360 version of Bully and would be rightly frustrated if I do get the same issue as I had with BioShock before I changed hard drive (and patch).

  • Whizzo #30 4 years ago

    Can we expect the definite PS3 version within a resonable time (read: less than 2 years)
    There isn't going to be one.

  • back2funk #31 4 years ago

    @miiiguel
    What would be the point of releasing this on the PS3? Not much extra content to warrant it really. I think you're just trying to deflect this to a PS3 failure aren't you... We're not buying it.

    Now Bully 2... Thats another story.

  • smelly #32 4 years ago

    why would they release on ps3? no-one owns one!

  • Sir_TimAlot #33 4 years ago

    mine has hung twce in 70 mins, achievements have not been unlocking and some have been unlocking randomly, it is very annoying

  • beastmaster #34 4 years ago

    I was thinking of getting this but will hold off for a while. Which probably means I wont get it in the end. They'd better not these kind of issues with GTA 4 or all hell will break loose. Well, perhaps not. Just a few hundred comments on the EG pages.

  • lennon #35 4 years ago

    Played it for two hours last night. No probklems noticed. I have an elite though if it actually does make a difference.

  • Floppy #36 4 years ago

    My 360 hung twice in half an hour after unwrapping the game. Also every time the game is booted up, it doesn't recognise the presence/location of the last saved game used like every other 360 game I own. I have to select HDD manually EVERY time I boot the game from dashboard (no MMU's attached, BTW).

    With my unit having a 07/07 manufacture date, this is not 'limited to older 360s'. A buggy release. Update v-soon please Mr R*.

  • spongebob #37 4 years ago

    Played it for two hours last night. No probklems noticed. I have an elite though if it actually does make a difference.

    There's an awful lot of tearing and frame-rate problems for one. Also, minor annoying thing is the loading screens. It's like an stroboscopic slideshow at times what with the screenshots changing couple times a second.