It appears a sequel to 2006's Bully won't happen until Rockstar Vancouver is done with Max Payne 3.

Rockstar Games VP Dan Houser explains in a recent interview with Gamasutra that the company prefers to take its time after shipping a game to begin work on a direct sequel. Rockstar Vancouver previously developed Bully and is now finishing up Max Payne 3, currently scheduled for release in March 2012.

"Contrary to a lot of people, we like to take a little bit of time at the end of a game before starting a sequel, so we can wait for the excitement or disappointment and everything else of the experience to shake down and really see what we should do in the next game," Houser said. "So we knew that we didn't want to start doing the Bully sequel instantly at that second with those guys -- even though it is a property that, like Max, we adore and might come back to in the future. There was just no impetus to do that then."

"So we said, 'You can do Max, and then we will see what we can do with Bully.' So it was really waiting for the slot to open up and the group to open up to at least start work on it."

We first got word of Bully 2 back in 2009 when Shawn Lee, the composer for the first game, said in an interview he believes he would be doing the soundtrack for the sequel.

What do you want to see in the next Bully game? We put together our wish list, which you can read right here.

[Source: Gamasutra]