Warner Bros. kills Red vs. Blue production company Rooster Teeth
After 21 years, Warner Bros. is closing. Rooster Teeth, the production company behind it Red vs. blue And RWBY, among other titles. The process is expected to take several months, according to a message from Jordan Levin, general manager of Rooster Teeth, published on Rooster Teeth’s website on Wednesday. The Roost Podcast Network, with podcasts such as Kinda Funny and RT Podcast, will remain with Warner Bros. because the company wants to sell the network.
Warner Bros. will still release a completed, unspecified Rooster Teeth-produced film and other projects in the works, and is “exploring options” for Rooster Teeth content, according to Term. Variation reported About 150 full-time employees will be laid off on Wednesday, with “dozens of contractors and content creators” also suddenly affected.
Levin attributed the closure to “challenges facing digital media due to fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and cross-platform monetization, advertising and patronage.”
The company was founded in 2003 and associated with it Red vs. bluea machinima style show used Halo to tell a story about two groups of isolated, enemy soldiers who have fallen into an arid canyon. The show quickly became a hit; it took a game that people loved: the original Halo – and created a parody of both war stories and military video games. The most important thing was that it was normal funny – at least that was the case for me as a teenager. Twenty-one years later, I still sometimes mutter a sentence from the first episode to myself: Have you ever wondered why we are here? Red vs. blueThe final season of the series is scheduled to air this year.
“While not intentional, it is only fitting that our final season of ‘Red vs. Blue’ coincides with us navigating this lockdown together,” Levin wrote. “Our legacy is not just a collection of content, but a history of pixels burned into our screens, minds and hearts. Rooster Teeth has left an indelible mark on the media industry, and we can be proud of the countless ways we have pioneered connecting creators and content with a dedicated community.”
Rooster Teeth eventually branched out from there, with shows like Achievement unlocked And Let’s go play. It’s the next big thing, called an anime-style web series RWBYdebuted in 2013. The following year, Fullscreen acquired Rooster Teeth before the production company debuted its first film, Lazer team. That acquisition kicked off a series of mergers and restructurings that led to the consolidation of Rooster Teeth under AT&T. AT&T tried to sell Rooster Teeth in 2021, but said sales fell by $20 million in 2019. it didn’t sold, so it was included in the AT&T deal that saw WarnerMedia merge with Discovery to form Warner Bros. to create discovery.
Although still popular, Rooster Teeth struggled to retain the janky charm and easy humor of his earliest days. The company also faced several serious controversies including RWBY Also, the removal of actor Vic Mignogna from the show following sexual harassment allegations as several cases of alleged workplace misconduct.
On social media, Rooster Teeth fans tried to support the company’s laid-off staff, calling the impending closure “an end of an era.” Although Rooster Teeth has changed enormously over the years – and not always for the better – many people look back fondly on the works it has created.