Rockstar’s New Game “Bully” Has Angered Parents Before October 2006 Release

Alice Hill of RealTechNews writes:

From the company that gave you a game where you can literally kick prostitutes to death comes the hotly anticipated “Bully.” Rockstar Games announced today that Bully would be hitting store shelves in October 2006.

First, a bit about the game:

The game’s main character is 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who must defend himself against school bullies at a fictional U.S. boarding school called Bullworth Academy, while dealing with characters ranging from nerds and jocks to authoritarian prefects. Weapons include baseball bats that break after several blows, stink bombs and bags of marbles that when strategically thrown will lay flat most pursuers.

Now the controversy already a brewin’:

In March, Florida’s Miami-Dade County School Board called on retailers not to sell the game to minors and required the school district to warn parents about potentially harmful effects of playing violent video games. In a recent demonstration of “Bully,” which Rockstar said has not yet been rated, the fighting scenes did not include blood or result in the death of characters. [Source: Reuters]

We Say: What else? Can’t wait till October! Seriously, after the Hot Coffee scandal, you can bet that Bully will be a much tamer game than was originally planned. Not quite as tame as the Table Tennis game Rockstar also announced not long ago for the Xbox 360, but definitely no Columbine gore.

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[tags]controversy,real tech news,bully,rockstar,columbine,video game violence[/tags]