A hidden message in the most recent update for Grand Theft Auto Online could hint at an upcoming sequel to 2006's open world boarding school game Bully. Also released by Rockstar Games, Bully was never quite as popular as the studio's more well-known franchises like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto, but amassed its own cult following and ended up getting a expanded version with additional content a few years after release titled Bully: Scholarship Edition.
GTA Online's latest update, the Diamond Casino & Resort, has already been found to contain multiple secrets, including a special hidden casino mission that can only be accessed by getting drunk. It's not unprecedented for developers to add in extra content and new easter eggs in DLC updates (just look at what Mortal Kombat recently added for Scorpion) but some eagle-eyed fans have gone the extra mile and discovered what some are hoping is definite proof of a Bully sequel coming soon.
As reported by GameRant, one of the penthouse decorations in GTA Online's casino update is a wall hanging that bears the name Canis Canem Edit, which is both the title of the European versions of Bully and also the motto of the in-universe school Bullworth Academy, where the majority of the game takes place. Fans then noticed that there appears to be a message written in morse code on the wall hanging itself, which when translated to English spells out the phrase DNA4.
While DNA4 means basically nothing at all, by reducing all the letters and numbers in the morse code message by the number 2 as indicated above (which, in this fan's theory, indicates Bully 2) the message becomes BLY2, or, well, Bully 2. Although it may feel like a stretch to assume that Rockstar Games would hide this type of announcement in such an obtuse fashion, this isn't the first mention of Bully in one of their more recent titles. Their repeated inclusion hints at something more than just normal franchise references, as even Red Dead Redemption 2, released only last year, featured a revolver with the same Canis Canem Edit phrase engraved on the barrel.
Rockstar Games isn't known as a publisher that pumps out titles one after another, choosing instead to wait years between releases and use that time to extensively polish and refine their games. It took eight years for Red Dead Redemption to receive its massive sequel, and there were five years between the releases of GTAIV and Grand Theft Auto V. It's now been thirteen years since Bully was released, and while players won't know if these fan theories are true until an official announcement comes, one thing that's readily apparent with Grand Theft Auto Online's little easter egg is that Rockstar still hasn't forgotten about Bullworth Academy.
Source: GameRant