Rooster Teeth Is Shutting Down After 21 Years

Summary

Rooster Teeth is shutting down after 21 years in business.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been trying to sell the company since 2022. AT&T was reportedly looking to offload it even before deciding to exit the entertainment industry by selling TimeWarner to Discovery.
Approximately 150 full-time employees will lose their jobs as a result of the move. The Roost podcast will survive the shutdown because Warner Bros. Discovery is still trying to find a buyer for it.

American gaming, comedy, and entertainment company Rooster Teeth Productions is going out of business. The announcement of Rooster Teeth shutting down arrives just three weeks shy of the group's 21st anniversary.

Founded in 2003, Rooster Teeth was acquired by the now-defunct entertainment company Fullscreen in 2014. Back then, Fullscreen was a subsidiary of the then-AT&T-owned Otter Media. The company went through some cost-cutting efforts in 2019, when it laid off around 50 employees, amounting to approximately 13% of its workforce. Although AT&T was reportedly looking to offload Rooster Teeth even before deciding to sell TimeWarner to Discovery, those purported ambitions did not yield any results. The company hence ultimately ended up in the portfolio of Warner Bros. Discovery, established in April 2022 as a result of AT&T's decision to exit the entertainment industry after a mere four years.

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Rooster Teeth Boss Announces Company Shutdown

Warner Bros. Discovery openly kept shopping Rooster Teeth around over the following two years. When exactly it gave up on trying to find a buyer for the group is unclear, but those efforts have certainly stopped by now, as Rooster Teeth General Manager Jordan Levin just confirmed that the company is shutting down. The March 6 announcement arrived four and a half years after Levin took over the reins of the group from CEO Matt Hullum in the weeks that followed its 2019 round of layoffs. Rooster Teeth co-founder Burnie Burns stepped down as chief creative officer as part of the same move, then left the firm less than a year later.

The Roost Podcast Will Outlive Rooster Teeth

Rooster Teeth won't be shut down overnight, with the process being expected to take between several weeks and months. Elaborating on the implications of the move, Levin clarified that The Roost podcast will continue operating for the time being. The only remaining branch of the company that is nowadays being described as a "growing asset" by its leadership is still being shopped around by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is currently unclear how much longer the New York-based conglomerate will keep trying to find a buyer for the podcast.

Our legacy is not just a collection of content but a history of pixels burned into our screens, minds, and hearts. Rooster Teeth has made an indelible mark on the media industry, and we should be so proud of the countless ways we pioneered a business connecting creators and content with a dedicated community.

While the final season of the long-running Halo web series Red vs. Blue will coincide with Rooster Teeth's closure, Levin characterized this turn of events as unintentional, albeit "appropriate." The executive attributed the shutdown to wider industry trends, pointing to everything from the ongoing layoffs to "advertising challenges" as the factors that contributed to this outcome. Approximately 150 employees will be laid off as a result of this move, in addition to many other content creators working for Rooster Teeth as freelance contractors.

Aside from the massive impact that Rooster Teeth's content had on the wider gaming culture, the company's closure also represents a direct loss for the gaming industry due to its publishing activity. Since 2014, Rooster Teeth had developed three games while publishing seven others, including some highly memorable experiences such as Bendy and the Ink Machine.