End of an Era: Rooster Teeth shutting down after 21 years in operation (of Red Vs Blue fame)

[Lunar River]

Summary

It was bound to happen eventually, controversy, declines viewers, mismanagement that has plagued rooster teeth for the better part of 5 years has finally caught up to one of the pioneers of online video.

 

Quotes

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Rooster Teeth is biting the dust after more than two decades.

 

Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, after unsuccessful attempts to sell the unprofitable fandom, gaming and comedy entertainment division, is shutting down Rooster Teeth’s operations. RT general manager Jordan Levin announced the shutdown of Austin-based Rooster Teeth at an all-hands meeting Wednesday and in a memo distributed to staff.

The closure of Rooster Teeth will result in layoffs of its approximately 150 full-time employees and will throw dozens of contractors and content creators out of work as well.

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Rooster Teeth had operated a subscription video-on-demand service from its earliest days, and in 2016 rebranded the service as First. At its peak, Rooster Teeth’s First had about 225,000 paying members at the height of the popularity of “RWBY” and “Gen:Lock,” but has fallen off to about 60,000 today. Warner Bros. Discovery will be communicating with subscribers within the next few weeks about the service’s shutdown.

 

At one point, Rooster Teeth’s staff had ballooned to a headcount of more than 400. It continually winnowed its ranks over the years in attempts to turn the enterprise profitable to no avail; Rooster Teeth has operated at a loss for the past decade.

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Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in talks to sell the rights to certain Rooster Teeth catalog content and intellectual property such as the popular anime-style series “RWBY”, pioneering sci-fi spoof “Red vs. Blue,” and Michael B. Jordan’s animated mecha series “Gen:Lock.” In addition, WBD is seeking to sell the Roost podcast network, with shows spanning gaming, true crime, fandom, comedy and food, which for the time being will continue to operate.

 

 

My thoughts

While it is sort of sad to see the company go, a company that no doubt had a big impact on a large amount of people across the world, i do feel like it is overdue. Achievement Hunter shut the doors months ago, even though their viewers had tanked and only been going down likely caused by the Ryan Haywood and Adam Kovic issues. the now infamous "we dont want you, fuck off, you're replaceable" that turned out to be, not so true. rebranding that [everyone hated that].

 

It is currently unknown if the youtube channels will remain up after the closure, but this is WB we're talking about. There will undoubtedly be a lot of lost "first" content that will never see the light of day again unless people go and archive them.

 

Well, it was a good run RT, you'll be missed for your golden years...not what ever you turned into recently.

 

Sources

https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/rooster-teeth-shutting-down-warner-bros-discovery-1235931953/

[Holmes108]

Wow, I've somehow never even heard this company/service's name before, although I have heard of Red vs. Blue. Wonder how I missed this one entirely.

[Lunar River]

1 hour ago, Holmes108 said:

Wow, I've somehow never even heard this company/service's name before, although I have heard of Red vs. Blue. Wonder how I missed this one entirely.

this is quite the common statement i've seen lately. funny how everyone knows the show, but not who's behind it.

updated the title of the post for shits and giggles.

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, Lunar River said:

 

While it is sort of sad to see the company go, a company that no doubt had a big impact on a large amount of people across the world, i do feel like it is overdue.

 

I think the 'Vic' issue is what finally killed RWBY. It split the fans of it that still stuck around after Monty died. The background noise was always "nobody knows what they are doing with this IP, it's clearly not planned to go anywhere, and the writing is extremely terrible." On top of that the merch was terrible too. Just seemed like RT didn't know what to do with it, ever.

 

I had a group of friends that basically watched it and Gen:Lock but it's overly the same problem, it looks cheap, is poorly written, and getting "big name" actors doesn't save it.

 

Maybe it fills a niche that people wanted, but RT and it's owners clearly didn't see a return on the investment.

 

As for the rest of the RT properties, does anyone even remember anything else they did? Why would anyone pay for a subscription just to watch one unfinished episode of a show a month. 

 

[williamcll]

Was bound to happen once they went corporate, the same happened with machinima

[Doobeedoo]

I knew it because of RWBY heh.

[SolarNova]

I used to watch 'lets Play' and 'achievment hunter' years ago. Stoped after they threw Ryan under the bus.

 

Honestly as they got bigger things just got worse. Not surprised they have finally folded.