In a move that isn’t entirely shocking, Warner Brothers Discovery has confirmed today that they will be shutting down Rooster Teeth studio, 21 years after it first began. Rooster Teeth, an animation and game studio, is probably best known for it’s Red vs Blue series, which was created due to the widespread popularity of the first Halo game. Rooster Teeth began in 2003 and was purchased by Warner Brothers Discovery in 2014.
Since the acquisition by Warner Brothers, the studio has fallen out of favor with wider audiences as it became progressively more political, often engaging in hostilities with Twitter users who disagreed with their identity politics. The amount of good will and fond memories that the core audience of Rooster Teeth had left was minimal at best, so it’s not very surprising that Twitter users aren’t showing much sympathy to the closure of the Warner Brothers owned studio.
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In a memo that has since been posted to Rooster Teeth’s website, General Manager Jordan Levin addressed the closure.
“Dear Rooster Teeth,” the GM began, “Since our founders created and uploaded their first video on the then-called World Wide Web in 2003, Rooster Teeth has been a source of creativity, laughter, and lasting innovation in the wildly volatile media industry. We’ve read the headlines about industry-wide layoffs and closures, and you’ve heard me give my perspective and updates on the rapidly changing state of media and entertainment during each of our monthly All Hands meetings.”
“Since inheriting ownership and control of Rooster Teeth from AT&T following its acquisition of TimeWarner, Warner Brothers 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, the Roost team is not currently impacted by this action as the Roost Podcast Network will continue operating and fulfilling its obligations while WBD evaluates outside interest in acquiring this growing asset.”
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The Rooster Teeth GM continued, saying, “We have many questions to answer in the coming days and weeks, 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.”
Naturally, this announcement created a plethora of different reactions across Twitter. While many Twitter users were sad to see their beloved studio shutting it’s doors, other Twitter users were quick to point to tweets that seemed to foretell the studio’s fate. Twitter user @TheGatorGamer tweeted out:
“I used to be a Rooster Teeth fan a long time ago, but it was clear the company went in a totally different direction. They became the symbol of what happens when you go totally woke. You go completely broke. I’d be sad if the real Rooster Teeth hadn’t died years ago.”
YouTuber and Twitter user @The_Epic_Mike shared his perspective on the situation. “Hollywood is too bloated and out of touch to keep pace with internet culture,” he tweeted. “Rooster Teeth is a perfect example of this. Stop hoping for handouts and reaching for brass rings from these studios. They don’t care about you. Time to forge your own swords.”
Popular artist and Twitter user George Alexopoulos (@GPrime85) chimed in as well, tweeting, “To me, Rooster Teeth had always been a small handful of guys with amazing chemistry, insulting each other, yelling, laughing, having fun. All the other stuff was unnecessary bullshit.”
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Stuttering Craig from the Side Scrollers Podcast joined in on the Twitter discourse, tweeting, “With @RoosterTeeth officially dying today I want to buy back @ScrewAttack & @DEATHBATTLE. Hey @wbd let’s make it happen.”
In what might be viewed as some sort of cosmic justice, Jeremy from the extremely popular Geeks and Gamers YouTube channel shared his personal experience with Rooster Teeth on Twitter. “In 2019 some loser from Rooster Teeth was going after me and G+G” he tweeted. “Today Rooster Teeth has officially shut down. I never forget.”
Warner Brothers Discovery is currently trying to shop The Roost Podcast to potential buyers, as well as several of their original shows such as Red vs Blue, RWBY, and GEN:Lock. As of right now, there is no news of outside interest in these IPs. Warner Brothers has been trying to figure out ways to cut costs for several years now, so it’s not hard to imagine that we’ll see other small properties that are owned by Warner Brothers suffer the same fate.
How do you feel about Rooster Teeth? Do you think there will be more downsizing at Warner Brothers? Let us know in the comments.
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