After 21 years, Warner Bros. is shutting down Rooster Tooth, the manufacturing firm behind Purple vs. Blue and RWBY, amongst different titles. The method is predicted to take a number of months, based on a discover from Rooster Tooth normal supervisor Jordan Levin, published Wednesday on the Rooster Teeth website. The Roost Podcast Community, which boasts podcasts like Kinda Humorous and RT Podcast, will stick with Warner Bros. as the corporate seems to promote the community.
Warner Bros. will nonetheless launch a accomplished, unspecified Rooster Tooth-produced film and different in-the-works tasks, and is “exploring choices” for Rooster Tooth’s content material, according to Deadline. Variety reported Wednesday that round 150 full-time staff shall be laid off, with “dozens of contractors and content material creators” all of the sudden impacted, too.
Levin attributed the closure to “challenges going through digital media ensuing from basic shifts in client conduct and monetization throughout platforms, promoting, and patronage.”
The corporate was based in 2003, and with it got here Purple vs. Blue, a machinima-styled present that used Halo to inform a narrative about two teams of remoted, opposing troopers dropped right into a barren canyon. The present rapidly turned a success; it took a sport folks beloved — the unique Halo — and created a parody of each wartime narratives and army video video games. Most significantly, it was simply humorous — a minimum of, it was to me as a teen. Twenty-one years later, I nonetheless typically mumble a line from the primary episode to myself: You ever wonder why we’re here? Purple vs. Blue’s remaining season is slated for this 12 months.
“Although not intentional, It’s solely acceptable that our final season of ‘Purple vs. Blue’ coincides with us navigating this closure collectively,” Levin wrote. “Our legacy isn’t just a group of content material however a historical past of pixels burned into our screens, minds, and hearts. Rooster Tooth has made an indelible mark on the media business, and we must be so pleased with the numerous methods we pioneered a enterprise connecting creators and content material with a devoted group.”
Rooster Tooth ultimately branched out from there, with reveals like Achievement Unlocked and Let’s Play. It’s subsequent main hit, an anime-style net sequence referred to as RWBY, debuted in 2013. The subsequent 12 months, Fullscreen acquired Rooster Tooth earlier than the manufacturing firm debuted its first film, Lazer Team. That acquisition kicked off a string of mergers and restructurings that led to Rooster Tooth’s consolidation below AT&T. AT&T tried to promote Rooster Tooth in 2021, saying its income dropped by $20 million in 2019. Rooster Tooth didn’t get bought, so it was included within the AT&T deal that merged WarnerMedia with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rooster Tooth, whereas nonetheless fashionable, struggled to keep up the janky allure and straightforward humor of its earliest days. The corporate additionally confronted a number of severe controversies, together with RWBY actor Vic Mignogna’s elimination from the present after allegations of sexual harassment, as properly as several instances of alleged workplace misconduct.
On social media, Rooster Tooth followers appeared to help the corporate’s laid-off workers, and referred to as the approaching shutdown “an finish of an period.” Although Rooster Tooth has modified a ton through the years — and never at all times for the higher — lots of people look again fondly on the works it created.