Rooster Teeth, an entertainment subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, has announced that it is shutting down after 21 years. According to a report from Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of selling the rights to some of its intellectual property (IP) and content, including its acclaimed RWBY animated web series.
In an internal memo by Rooster Teeth General Manager Jordan Levin, he states that the company is “shutting down due to challenges facing digital media as a result of shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage.” Levin said that their legacy is not just a collection of content but rather a history of pixels burned into the screens, minds, and hearts of fans.
Since inheriting ownership and control of Rooster Teeth from AT&T following its acquisition of TimeWarner, Warner Bros. Discovery continued its investment in our company, content and community. Now however, it’s with a heavy heart I announce that Rooster Teeth is shutting down due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage.
Please note that the Roost team is not currently impacted by this action. The Roost Podcast Network will continue operating and fulfilling its obligations while WBD evaluates outside interest in acquiring this growing asset.
In the coming days and weeks, we will have many questions to answer and the opportunity to work together to implement the best way to wind things down for us and our community. We’re working through what comes next in real time, and we will be as open, direct, and accessible as possible. Thank you all in advance for your patience and support of one another.
Excerpt from Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin’s internal memo (via Variety)
Rooster Teeth was founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman. Its first content production was the Red Vs. Blue web series, which first premiered in April 2003. Some of its other series include Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures (2010), Camp Camp (2016), gen:LOCK (2017), and a Netflix series alongside Hasbro in 2020 related to the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline.
One of the company’s most popular titles is RWBY, which was first released in July 2013, with the first and eighth volumes being released by Rooster Teeth themselves, before moving to Crunchyroll starting in volume 9. The platform describes the series as:
In a world filled with horrific monsters bent on death & destruction, humanity’s hope lies with powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long are four such Huntresses whose journeys will take them far past the grounds of their school, Beacon Academy.
Though each may be powerful on their own, these four girls must overcome dark forces and work as a team if they truly hope to become the next generation of Remnant’s protectors.
RWBY also launched a Japanese animated series titled RWBY: Ice Queendom that was animated by studio Shaft, with chief direction from Kenjirou Okada and direction from Toshimasa Suzuki. Hideyuki Murata (Bandai Namco Arts), Kaho Yamada (Good Smile Company), and Saki Okumura (KLab) also aided in the production of the anime series. It aired for 12 episodes from July to September 2022.
Crunchyroll describes the anime as:
In the world of Remnant, a place where science and fairy tales coexist, human civilization is plagued by deadly monsters known as the Grimm. For a time, victory by the Grimm seemed all but certain, if not for the heroism of those sworn to protect humanity — Huntsmen and Huntresses. These warriors are trained and assembled into teams at schools like Beacon Academy, where Ruby meets Weiss and Blake — forming Team RWBY along with Ruby’s sister, Yang. While team RWBY studies to become the greatest Huntresses the world of Remnant has ever known, they are faced with a horrifying threat…
Source: Variety
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