A month after launch, Bully Online mod "is shutting down forever" and being scrubbed from existence as dev assures "this was not something we wanted"

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Bully Online's project lead previously dismissed concerns about legal trouble from Rockstar and Take-Two, but if this is what it looks like, he may have spoken too soon

A football team and red bull mascot running in Bully
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Bully Online project lead Swegta has announced that the ambitious mod, which added online functionality and a ton of other GTA Online-type stuff to Rockstar's cult classic, has been shut down permanently just one month after it launched. Virtually all traces of the mod and its source code have been scrubbed from the web, with Swegta strongly suggesting some, uh, outside force had something to do with the abrupt shutdown.

"The Bully Online project is shutting down. Thank you all for playing," reads an update on Swegta's official website. No other information was given, but Insider Gaming managed to dig up a screenshot of some messages that a member of Swegta's team shared to discord, and there's a little more information there. None of it is good for fans of the project.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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