Despite a ton of controversy and praise the original got, a major gaming industry analyst says Bully 2 just won’t be in the cards. His reasoning? It didn’t make Rockstar enough bank. This is what Michael Pachter, Managing Director of Research for Wedbush Morgan Securities, had to say to GamePolitics:
Bully sales trailed off pretty dramatically in November. In October, the regular edition of the game sold 125,000 units (I think that the collector’s edition sold another 30,000 units…) in the U.S., so we should assume it sold a combined 250,000 worldwide.
In November, Bully sold 105,000 units… My guess is that the game did NOT sell particularly well at holiday, so probably another 150,000 units worldwide in December. We expect it to sell another 200,000 or so units over the next few months, and to disappear from retail shelves.
Those estimates total 800,000 units at an average wholesale price of around $30, so it will likely generate around $24 million in revenues. Since the game took three years to develop, it likely cost Take-Two close to $15 million in R&D, and my guess is that the company did no better than to break even. I would NOT expect a sequel.
If Pachter is right, then that’s a sad sign for gaming. Bully was and is a refreshing take on the sandbox genre and anyone who played it will tell you nothing but good things about it. Think of it as a slightly more successful Psychonauts in terms of quality related to actual sales. Rockstar, if you’re reading this, make Bully 2. We’d love to see it happen.
[Via 1UP]
