A Brazilian designer comes clean about the the leaked Bully 2 screenshots that had surfaced in August. The screenshots prompted huge excitement and anticipation from fans who hoped that Rockstar Games would soon announce the schoolyard sequel more than a decade after the first Bully game was released.
On Twitter, a Brazilian designer named Felipe Borges posted an apology to the Bully fan community, confirming that the leaked Bully 2 screenshots were fake. In English, Borges wrote "Sorry guys, it was all a concept made by me," admitting that the whole thing had "gone too far." Borges @'d the Twitter accounts of several high profile Bully fans as well as several publications who had written about the leaked screenshots, with Game Rant being among them. Each tweet contained evidence that Borges had designed the fake Bully 2 screenshots, from the map, to the screenshot of the game's protagonist, and the game's menu screen.
Unsurprisingly, most Bully fans were furious with Borges for toying with their emotions like that. Some called Borges' actions a "cheap" way of promoting his social media accounts and others posted angry GIFs of rioters from SpongeBob SquarePants and Harry Potter. There have been rumors for some time that Bully 2 is Rockstar's next game after Red Dead Redemption 2, and Borges got 15 minutes of fame by jumping on fans' hope for the title.
Others, though, commended the designer's efforts. Looking at the screenshots and designs created by Borges, some say it's not difficult to see why so many were fooled. While the map is probably much smaller than what Rockstar could create, looking at the size of games like Red Dead Redemption 2, the map icons and the mini map look like they could be out of a Rockstar game. Many would also like to see a protagonist who gets to explore outside of the school grounds and wear his own clothes, and that's what Borges made up screenshots gave them.
It's unclear whether Rockstar really is developing Bully 2. The company is working on a game for next-generation consoles, job listings have confirmed, but fans don't yet know if this game is Bully 2. Some fans have also wondered if Rockstar is teasing the game with Easter eggs found in Grand Theft Auto Online. What fans do know, however, is that the longer Rockstar takes the announce the game, the more likely it is that designers like Borges will manage to fool them again.
Bully 2 is rumored to be in development for unspecified platforms, but has not been announced.