Rockstar has responded to reports of problems with the Xbox 360 version of Bully Scholarship Edition by stating that most of the issues are not their fault but are linked with older consoles that might have hardware problems.

Gamers have been complaining that there are bugs in the game which cause it to freeze in the middle of play, that the sounds and music are out of sync and that the framerate can drop suddenly and without clear cause.

Bully follows the adventures of a young kid called Jimmy Hopkins, whose dysfunctional family dumps him on the doorstep of the even more dysfunctional Bullworth Academy, where he must fight, explore and generally carve a niche for himself.

In a statement issued to gaming blog Kotaku, Rockstar boss Sam Houser said the company was aware of the issue and was doing all it could to find a solution. "It appears that some older 360s are experiencing frame-rate issues, freezes and other problems. You have our word that we never experienced any of this in QA - in any of our offices or at Microsoft," he declared. The statement seems a bit bogus, considering the fact that Q&A is supposed to test a product on all possible configurations, including older platforms. The statement continued: "I am horrified, and we are now working around the clock to rectify this situation. Thanks to Neo-Gaf for bringing this matter to our attention. We love our games and put a huge amount of energy and care into making them all that they can be."

Responding to accusations that the game had been released prematurely, Houser said that his company "would never shove anything out the door - we never have and never will." He then added: "We apologise to everyone affected for the inconvenience". An apology is surely nice, but better testing of the game prior to release would be even nicer.

Rockstar are currently working to address the issues gamers have presented and as soon as new news becomes available, you get to read it here.