Rooster Teeth was a web-based media company most famous for the web serieses Red vs. Blue and RWBY. They started out on April 1, 2003 with the very first episode of Red vs. Blue, a machinima web series that was based on, and used models from, Halo. Eventually, they got very popular and expanded their operations over the years. They’ve been acquired by many companies, who in turn were acquired by other companies, and in recent years RT somehow had the misfortune of being owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Apparently, Rooster Teeth has not been profitable since 2014. For ten years, they have been operating at a loss. Not even their big fan expo events have broken even. WB has been looking to sell RT since 2021, to no avail. Ultimately, on March 6, 2024, RT’s general manager Jordan Levin released a press statement saying that the company would shut down in two months. The RT employees were not aware of this until after the statement was released.
Rooster Teeth is also infamous for its workplace controversies and sexual harrassment allegations, but that’s a story for another day.
Even though I never was interested in Rooster Teeth’s content until last year, it’s pretty clear that they had a big impact on the early days of the Web. Shows like Red vs. Blue, RWBY, and gen:LOCK hold a special place in many people’s hearts, and it’s sad to see their legacy end.
Rooster Teeth’s final project was Red vs. Blue: Restoration, a feature film that acts as the series finale to Red vs. Blue, which was released on May 7, 2024. I think this is a fitting end to the company. Their legacy starts and ends with RvB.
Here’s to 21 years. Hopefully RWBY can get a proper ending.
Any idea what happened in 2014 to make it the last profitable year? Did they expand too much or is that when some of the controversies started?
2014 is when YouTube\Facebook turned on their algorithms that prioritized the content that people spend lots of time looking at, over the relevant popular videos it used to suggest.
Overexpansion, nepotism, the heavy drinking subsidised by the company, and as the other response mentioned, algorithmic changes to the platforms they used.
2014 is around when I had to stop trying to consume all their content, because they started churning out 4-12 hours per day (or so it felt).
They also hosted all their content themselves, and a fair amount or their content was only available on their website - and I don’t think that the First memberships covered the whole hosting expense.