Rockstar planned to make Bully 2, according to a new report, and while the game never materialized, we’ve now learned more about what the studio reportedly had in mind for the sequel.

Game Informer spoke with developers at Rockstar New England, the studio originally known as Mad Doc before Rockstar acquired it, who shared fresh details on plans for the sequel. The original game was developed by Rockstar Vancouver, with Rockstar New England stepping in for the Scholarship Edition. The sequel is said to have been in development between 2008 and 2010.

The plan, according to the developers speaking to the magazine, was for Bully 2 to be an “event” game that could sit alongside GTA IV and Red Red Redemption in terms of its stature and importance to Rockstar.

“There was a lot of focus on character, very deep systems, seeing how far we could push that, and putting it up there alongside a GTA,” one developer said.

Around 50-70 people might have been working on Bully 2, the report said, which was a bigger team than the first game to accommodate its reportedly larger scope.

The Bully 2 map wouldn’t have been as large as GTA IV’s (due in part to there being no vehicles), but it was projected to be about three times the size of the first Bully’s map. Every building in the game could be entered, according to the plan. “If you could see it, you could go into it,” a developer said.

Bully 2 was also going to feature a gameplay system that would have the game remember what your character, Jimmy, did, and then respond to that. “If you pulled a prank on your neighbor, they’d remember it,” one developer said.

Rockstar also reportedly planned to have a new realistic-looking grass-growing mechanic in Bully 2 as well as a new “glass fragmentation system” that would make glass break in different ways each time. In the sequel, Jimmy could climb trees, fences, and ledges, according to the report.

About six to eight hours of Bully 2 was playable, the report said, but it would have required about two or three more years of development before it would be released. It was not meant to be, however, as developers working on the game were shifted to other projects. The report doesn’t mention a specific reason that Rockstar opted not to see the game through to release. Rockstar had no comment on the report.

The full report is a fascinating and eye-opening look into Bully 2 and the wider situation surrounding its development–go read it here.

As for what Rockstar is working on, the studio is releasing Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S this March. A standalone version of GTA Online is releasing then as well, and it’ll be free on PS5 for PS Plus subscribers for the first three months.

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Game designer Hideo Kojima has discussed some of his plans for 2022, saying he plans to experiment with a “radical project” this year and make further investments to the “video team.” Kojima said he might also pursue something new like a “radio project” of some type.

Kojima discussed all of this on Twitter recently (via VGC). He said 2021 was a “very difficult year,” but despite the challenges due to the pandemic, the team was able to release the Death Stranding Director’s Cut on PlayStation 5. Additionally, Kojima said his team spent time in 2021 “solemnly preparing and experimenting with new titles.”

Although 2021 was still a very difficult year for us, we managed to deliver the release of DSDC for PS5 safely even in this COVID situation while we were solemnly preparing and experimenting with new titles.
Thank you very much👍 pic.twitter.com/Jkb6UphP5U

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 31, 2021

This year, I’m going to start a new work in earnest, and move to the next level of experimentation with a radical project. I’m also hoping to get the video team going. And I may start doing something like a radio project? pic.twitter.com/j0norcJ23a

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) January 2, 2022

What those “new titles” are remains to be seen. One exciting rumor is that Kojima is working with Microsoft on a new Xbox game, though this has yet to be confirmed or officially announced.

At The Game Awards, movie director and Kojima’s pal, Guillermo del Toro, offered what sounded like a tease for a new Silent Hill game. However, del Toro subsequently confirmed that he was only joking.

Kojima’s comment about the “video team” might be in relation to the film and TV unit that Kojima Productions opened in 2021. Based in Los Angeles, the team will work with “creative and talented professionals in television, music, and film…”

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Halo Infinite‘s lead narrative designer, Aaron Linde, has announced he is leaving 343 Industries in 2022. Linde said on Twitter that he is leaving to “pursue a new opportunity,” but didn’t share exactly where he is going just yet.

Whatever the case, Linde said it was a “terrifically difficult decision” to leave 343. “Halo Infinite will remain one of the proudest achievements of my career for the rest of my life,” Linde said. “I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.”

Bittersweet news to report: I’m departing 343 Industries to pursue a new opportunity in 2022. It was a terrifically difficult decision; Halo Infinite will remain one of the proudest achievements of my career for the rest of my life. I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.

— Aaron Linde (@aaronlinde) December 31, 2021

Linde went on to say: “I want to thank my dear colleagues at 343 for making the best game I’ve ever worked on, our incredible voice cast for elevating our work in every single line delivery, and our players for joining us on this wild-ass journey. You made 2021 an incredibly special year for me. I get squidgy talking about real sh** on this stupid website [Twitter] so I’ll leave it at that for now. But I can’t underscore enough how grateful I am and always will be. See you next mission.”

As lead narrative designer, Linde was in charge of a small team of writers handling “all open world narrative content” in the game, according to his LinkedIn page. This amounted to more than 15,000 lines of enemy and Marine chatter, more than 100 audio logs, and ambient dialogue.

Before Halo, Linde was the lead writer on Gearbox’s Battleborn before moving to ArenaNet to work on an unannounced project at the Guild Wars studio. He then moved to Bungie to become a senior writer on Destiny 2 before shifting to 343 in 2019 to work on Halo Infinite.

As for Halo Infinite, the game’s Winter Contingency multiplayer event is going on now.

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Game of Thrones author Gorge R.R. Martin contributed to the lore of the upcoming game Elden Ring, and now the writer has discussed the project in more depth.

Posting on his blog, Martin said From Software’s Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team reached out to him “a few years back” to discuss the potential of helping the team work on Elden Ring for its backstory and history.

Martin acknowledged that video games are “not really my thing,” but the opportunity to work on Elden Ring was “too exciting to refuse,” he said.

“Miyazaki and his team from From Software were doing groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art, and what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history,” Martin explained.

“So I did my bit, and handed off to my new friends in Japan, and they took it from there. And years passed. Video games are as big as movies these days (bigger, actually)… and take just as long to create. But the day of Elden Ring is finally at hand. And I’ve got to say, it looks incredible.

Also in the post, Martin said some of the games he played in in the past have included mostly strategy titles such as Railroad Tycoon, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Master of Orion.

Following a delay, Elden Ring launches on February 25 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, as well as PS4 and Xbox One.

Elden Ring isn’t the only project that Martin is attached to releasing in 2022. He’s also working on the Game of Thrones prequel show, House of the Dragon, which debuts this year.

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It looks like Rare’s classic James Bond game, GoldenEye 007, might be headed to Xbox. Achievements for the game have appeared online, as spotted by Wario64 and posted on TrueAchievements.

Achievement pictures and a GoldenEye 007 thumbnail also appeared online, adding to the speculation that the 1997 Nintendo 64 game might be headed to Xbox in the future. There are a total of 55 Achievements worth 1,000 Gamerscore, according to the leak. Based on the text of the Achievements, it looks like both campaign and multiplayer are on the way.

an Xbox Achievement list for GoldenEye 007 has popped up https://t.co/7oaXNAq0Gr pic.twitter.com/OlTia6hZal

— Wario64 (@Wario64) January 1, 2022

2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the James Bond series. The company behind the franchise teased today that fans should “watch out for announcements, events, and new content across 2022.” A re-release of GoldenEye 007 could be among the surprise announcements, it seems, though nothing is confirmed at this stage.

This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the James Bond series. Watch out for announcements, events and new content across 2022. pic.twitter.com/eLiSIvK722

— James Bond (@007) January 1, 2022

Years ago, an Xbox Live Arcade version of GoldenEye 007 was reportedly in development. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said the lack of GoldenEye 007 on Xbox was a “rights issue,” suggesting it was a business issue causing a holdup as opposed to any kind of issue getting the game running on new hardware.

The “rights issue” might also explain why GoldenEye 007 was not featured in the 30-game Rare Replay package.

According to Unseen64, GoldenEye for Xbox Live Arcade was in development at Rare in 2007 and 2008. Microsoft, Activision (the James Bond rights-holders at the time), and Nintendo apparently agreed to a publishing deal. However, Nintendo Japan is purported to have shut the project down for unknown reasons just months before its planned release.

You can see some reported footage of GoldenEye 007 for Xbox in the video above.

In other news, Hitman developer IO Interactive is developing a new James Bond game that will tell an original story for the British superspy. Given 2022 is an anniversary year for the James Bond series, here’s to hoping we get to see or learn more about the game this year.

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Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has published a new letter to celebrate the new year and let fans and investors know what to expect from the company going forward.

Matsuda touched on subjects like the metaverse, NFTs, blockchain, and more. Starting with the metaverse, Matsuda said Facebook’s decision to change its name to Meta demonstrates that the metaverse as a concept “is not a mere buzzword but here to stay.”

Matsuda said the metaverse will become more of a commercial product in 2022, and it might end up having some applicability to Square Enix in the future.

“The metaverse will likely see a meaningful transition to a business phase in 2022, with a wide range of services appearing on the scene. As this abstract concept begins to take concrete shape in the form of product and service offerings, I am hoping that it will bring about changes that have a more substantial impact on our business as well,” Matsuda said.

As for NFTs, Matsuda said this could become another significant business opportunity. Like others, Matsuda observed “speculative overtones” in some parts of the NFT landscape, but overall, the executive believes NFTs will become immensely popular over time.

“We do observe examples here and there of overheated trading in NFT-based digital goods with somewhat speculative overtones, regardless of the observed value of the content provided,” Matsuda said. “This, obviously, is not an ideal situation, but I expect to see an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals as they become more commonplace among the general public, with the value of each available content corrected to their true estimated worth, and I look for them to become as familiar as dealings in physical goods.”

Matsuda reiterated that Square Enix’s previously stated plan to invest in AI, the cloud, and blockchain games remains unchanged. Square Enix has been “aggressive” in its R&D programs and investment in fields of AI, the cloud, and blockchain games, Matsuda said.

As for the cloud, Matsuda cloud gaming could help its content become more accessible. “Leveraging cloud technologies is extremely effective as a means of making our content and services uniformly available and as a catalyst for creating new forms of excitement that expand upon the content development capabilities for which we are known,” Matsuda said. “As such, we will be making ample investments in the cloud space.”

For blockchain games, Matsuda said Square Enix is so excited because of how those types of games can offer “self-sustaining game growth” as opposed to the type of games that exist today.

“Blockchain games, which have emerged from their infancy and are at this very moment entering a growth phase, are built upon the premise of a token economy and therefore hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth,” Matsuda said “The driver that most enables such self-sustaining game growth is diversity, both in how people engage with interactive content like games, and in their motivations for doing so. Advances in token economies will likely add further momentum to this trend of diversification. I see the ‘play to earn’ concept that has people so excited as a prime example of this.”

Finally, Matsuda acknowledged that criticisms of the “new trends” in games today. But Square Enix is pushing ahead because blockchain games, in particular, can make games “more exciting” and appeal to wider audiences.

“I realize that some people who ‘play to have fun’ and who currently form the majority of players have voiced their reservations toward these new trends, and understandably so. However, I believe that there will be a certain number of people whose motivation is to ‘play to contribute,’ by which I mean to help make the game more exciting,” Matsuda said. “Traditional gaming has offered no explicit incentive to this latter group of people, who were motivated strictly by such inconsistent personal feelings as goodwill and volunteer spirit. This fact is not unrelated to the limitations of existing UGC (user-generated content). UGC has been brought into being solely because of individuals’ desire for self-expression and not because any explicit incentive existed to reward them for their creative efforts. I see this as one reason that there haven’t been as many major game-changing content that were user generated as one would expect.”

“However, with advances in token economies, users will be provided with explicit incentives, thereby resulting not only in greater consistency in their motivation, but also creating a tangible upside to their creative efforts. I believe that this will lead to more people devoting themselves to such efforts and to greater possibilities of games growing in exciting ways. From having fun to earning to contributing, a wide variety of motivations will inspire people to engage with games and connect with one another. It is blockchain-based tokens that will enable this. By designing viable token economies into our games, we will enable self-sustaining game growth.”

Matsuda said Square Enix will keep a close on “societal shifts” as it relates to decentralized gaming opportunities like blockchain. One item that Square Enix is considering is creating and issuing their own tokens sometime down the road.

Check out Matsuda’s full letter here.

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Welcome to 2022! The year has officially kicked off, and it looks like the next 365 days will be packed full of high-profile releases on PC and console. While February 2022 currently has the Q1 lion’s share of big-name releases, January feels like a deceptive calm before the storm. You won’t see too many new games on this list, but there are a few big names that are taking advantage of the more subdued release schedule.

God of War (Jan. 14)

God of War

January is a month for more PlayStation console exclusives to arrive on PC, and that push continues with the arrival of Kratos in God of War. One of the very best games of the PS4 era, Sony Santa Monica’s gripping tale of fatherhood, Nordic myths, and the most satisfying axe return-to-sender effect in all of gaming is an unmissable experience for anyone who’s curious about God of War.

Rainbow Six Extraction (Jan. 20)

Rainbow Six Extraction

In the some-vs-many category that seems to be very popular with developers lately, Ubisoft is hitting 2022 with the debut of Rainbow Six Extraction. While Rainbow Six Extraction includes various features from Rainbow Six Siege, this game is more focused on tight teamwork that’s pitted against a number of bioweapons that are out to get you.

Post-launch, expect a sizeable amount of free content such as Crisis Events and the Maelstrom Protocol that’ll put your skills to the ultimate test.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Jan. 28)

Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Arriving mere months after the launch of the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes, Pokemon Legends: Arceus represents a massive departure for the pocket monster franchise. A trip back in time to when the Sinnoh region was known as the Hisui region, the latest Pokemon game is all about surveying, catching, and researching wild Pokemon while working on the first Pokedex for that land. A number of interesting gameplay tweaks, new Pokemon variants, and more dangerous terrain to explore make the next chapter in the long-running series an intriguing step forward that has the potential to shake the usual formula up.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (Jan. 28)

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection represents the first time that the franchise will be playable on PC, as the formerly PlayStation-exclusive series packs in remasters of both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Arriving first on PS5, the PC version of the Uncharted collection will release later in the year and is being developed by Iron Galaxy. In case you missed out on the previous games, Uncharted 4 continues the story of protagonist Nathan Drake, while The Lost Legacy is a spin-off game that shines a spotlight on Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross.

January 2022 Video Game Release Schedule

Demon Gaze Extra (Switch, PS4) – January 6Madison (PC) – January 7Monster Hunter Rise (PC) – January 12Astroneer (Switch) – January 13The Anacrusis (PC via Steam Early Access) – January 13God Of War (PC) – January 14WARNO (PC via Steam Early Access) – January 20Blackwind (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch) – January 20Windjammers 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Stadia) – January 20RPGolf Legends (PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) – January 20Rainbow Six Extraction (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Stadia, PC) – January 20Hidden Deep (PC via Steam Early Access) – January 24Kingdom of the Dead (PC) – January 26Diplomacy is Not an Option (PC via Steam Early Access) – January 26Circuit Superstars (PS4) – January 27Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2 (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC) – January 27Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) – January 28Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PS5) – January 28Read MoreGameSpot – Game News