Bully Online mod abruptly shuts down amid apparent legal pressure

Bully Online, the ambitious multiplayer overhaul for Rockstar’s school sim Bully, was abruptly shut down on January 14, 2026, with the project lead removing webpages, downloads and source files and announcing the closure to players. The move took servers and public project pages offline, and the team said all Bully Online account data would be permanently deleted within 24 hours.

A brief message posted on project lead Swegta’s site read, "The Bully Online project is shutting down. Thank you all for playing," and a fuller notice on the team’s Discord spelled out the immediate actions. "The Bully Online project is shutting down forever, which unfortunately means all the following is going to happen in 24 hours: our official Bully Online server (on swegta.com) will be shutdown, development of scripts for Bully Online will stop, the source code will be removed from swegta.com, all our webpages referring to it will be removed, the launcher downloads will taken down, and all Bully Online account data will be permanently deleted."

The team has not published a detailed public explanation yet but said a forthcoming video from Swegta will address the situation. "For now though, know this was not something we wanted." The rapid erasure of code and assets, combined with the sudden nature of the shutdown, strongly suggests legal pressure such as a cease-and-desist, though no takedown notice or statement from rights holders has been released publicly.

The closure hits players who were testing or paying for early access through the mod team’s Ko‑Fi page, a distribution model that had raised concerns in the community because monetized use of Rockstar intellectual property often attracts legal scrutiny. The Bully Online Mod DB page has been removed as well, though snapshots remain accessible via the Internet Archive for those trying to document what was lost.

This incident arrives as Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have been reshaping the modding landscape: the companies recently moved to formalize certain community tools and acquired teams behind prominent frameworks, and they launched an official mods marketplace. That approach appears to favor sanctioned, controlled mod projects while leaving independent, monetized mods vulnerable to enforcement.

Practical takeaways for players and modders are immediate. If you installed Bully Online or synced accounts, export or back up any personal data and local files still on your machine now. Follow Swegta’s channels for the promised video to learn what the team can legally share. If you develop or distribute mods that monetize Rockstar IP, be aware this episode underscores real legal risks and the importance of clear permissions or working within sanctioned channels.

For the community, the shutdown is a reminder that high-profile independent projects can be fragile. Expect renewed debate about paid mods, preservation of fan work, and the balance between community creativity and corporate control as more details emerge.