Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC was an American entertainment company headquartered in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. Founded in 2003 by
Burnie Burns,
Matt Hullum
Matthew Jay Hullum (born September 29, 1974) is an American film director, producer, writer, actor and visual effects supervisor living in Austin, Texas. He was one of five co-founders and former CEO of production company Rooster Teeth, which sp ...
,
Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña,
Gus Sorola
Gustavo Raul "Gus" Sorola III (born February 22, 1978) is an American actor and podcast host.
Early life
Sorola was born in Austin, and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, near the Mexico–United States border. After choosing to drop out from Rice ...
, and
Joel Heyman,
Rooster Teeth was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment, which is a division of
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...
.
Rooster Teeth's first production was ''
Red vs. Blue
''Red vs. Blue'', often abbreviated as ''RvB'', is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media fr ...
'', which premiered in April 2003; it is the third longest-running episodic web series of all time. Due to server and web hosting costs, the founders created "Sponsorships" which later became "FIRST", a subscription to exclusive and earlier access to content and discounts on their merchandise store, among other benefits. The company later branched out into
live-action
Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...
shorts, series, comedy,
Let's Play
A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
videos, and full animated productions. Other projects included reality shows, video game development, entertainment news programs, and
podcasts
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
. In 2015, Rooster Teeth released its feature-film debut ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
'', a
science-fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...
action comedy
The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the America ...
. The company hosted an annual convention,
RTX, from 2011 to 2023 in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
, and additionally in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
and
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
The company's videos were regularly released on its own website and app while podcasts and Let's Plays were published on their
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel as well. As of September 2021, Rooster Teeth's primary YouTube channel has 9.18 million subscribers and has over 6 billion video views.
Including all of their other channels, they maintain over 45 million subscribers.
On March 6, 2024, Rooster Teeth announced that the company would shut down.
On April 15, 2024, Rooster Teeth announced that both the First program and their website and apps would shut down on May 15, 2024. In February 2025, Burns acquired the Rooster Teeth brand and some of its remaining intellectual property through his company Box Canyon Productions.
History

While attending the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
,
Burnie Burns and
Matt Hullum
Matthew Jay Hullum (born September 29, 1974) is an American film director, producer, writer, actor and visual effects supervisor living in Austin, Texas. He was one of five co-founders and former CEO of production company Rooster Teeth, which sp ...
collaborated with actor
Joel Heyman making ''The Schedule,'' a 1997
independent film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...
. The movie helped Hullum and Heyman to find work in Los Angeles, but otherwise had limited success.
[Moltenbrey] While working for a local company named Telenetwork, Burns later met
Geoff Ramsey (then named Geoff Fink),
Gustavo Sorola
Gustavo Raul "Gus" Sorola III (born February 22, 1978) is an American actor and podcast host.
Early life
Sorola was born in Austin, Texas, Austin, and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, near the Mexico–United States border. After choosing to drop ...
, Dan Godwin, and Jason Saldaña; the five formed drunkgamers.com, a website where they reviewed various video games while drunk. According to Ramsey, the group tried to receive free games to review, but "incurred the wrath" of several game developers in doing so.
[Konow, 1.]
One of the non-gameplay videos that the drunkgamers crew created during this time was a live-action parody of the
Apple Switch ad campaign
Switchers was an advertising campaign launched by Apple Computer on June 10, 2002. It featured what the company referred to as "real people" who had "switched" from the Microsoft Windows platform to the Mac (computer), Mac. An international te ...
. This video featured Sorola as the main actor, used
Peter Tchaikovsky's "
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. The plot is a ...
" as background music, and focused on the lack of games available for the
Apple Macintosh
Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
computer.
[Mac Gamer Switch Parody.] Sorola and Burns said that the name was changed from 'Drunk Tank Podcast' to 'Rooster Teeth Podcast' for the same reason that 'Drunk Gamers' was changed to 'Rooster Teeth': Nobody would give games or sponsor something with 'drunk' in the title "because it was so unprofessional."
Burns said of the name change, "We named it something else to give people the idea that we were going to be doing more than that".
The name "Rooster Teeth" is a
euphemism
A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...
for "cockbite", an insult from the original ''
Red vs. Blue
''Red vs. Blue'', often abbreviated as ''RvB'', is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media fr ...
'' trailer that Burns described as a "touchstone for the audience".
Among the company's core philosophies, Burns said, "we only make content that we would want to see... it comes from a very genuine space. I think that our audience appreciates that voice".
As of 2017, production costs for an episode vary from $15,000 to $100,000.
Rooster Teeth's business strategy was a hybrid model composed of subscriptions, preroll ads, YouTube preroll ads, licensed studio productions, branded merchandise, and annual live events.
Rooster Teeth has attributed their success to maintaining their community site and was reluctant to join
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
initially, stating they viewed them as a "competitor".
In 2014, having signed a two-year lease, the entire company (then consisting of over 90 employees) moved into Stage 5 at
Austin Studios.
Acquisition by Fullscreen
In November 2014, Rooster Teeth was acquired by
Fullscreen for an undisclosed amount. Rooster Teeth agreed to be bought to give itself "the resources and tools" needed to compete against other producers. Burns elaborated by saying they considered
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
,
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
, and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
their current competition.
On February 3, 2015, Burns confirmed that Rooster Teeth would be establishing an office in Los Angeles. These offices were used by a whole new division,
Funhaus. The company released their
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...
debut in 2015 with ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
'', a
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
.
In 2016, Rooster Teeth hired three content executives to help with audience expansion: Luis Medina as senior VP of Partnerships, Evan Bregman as Director of Programming and Ryan P. Hall as Head of Development. It was announced that Medina would co-manage the ''Let's Play'' family with Ramsey, including
Achievement Hunter
Achievement Hunter was an American video gaming division of Rooster Teeth Productions. Founded by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo on July 6, 2008, the website was originally based on the achievement mechanic in video games but grew to become ...
, Funhaus, and ScrewAttack, and manage partnerships with third-party brands such as Cow Chop and Kinda Funny. Bregman will be responsible for programming strategy and boosting growth across all platforms such as apps, the community site, YouTube, and Facebook. Hall will oversee Rooster Teeth's development slate and lead efforts to identify up-and-coming projects and talent.
Each year, the company participated in
Extra Life An extra life is a video game item that gives the player another life.
Extra Life may also refer to:
* Extra Life (fundraiser), a fundraising event
* Extra Life (band), an experimental band from Brooklyn
* '' Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter' ...
, a gaming-themed fundraiser with Rooster Teeth's proceeds going to
Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas is a pediatric acute care hospital located in Austin, Texas. Serving a 46-county area and beyond, the hospital has 262 beds with an additional 72 beds available beginning fall 2022. It is a member of ...
. During their 2017 Extra Life stream, they raised a total of US$1,209,970.73. The 2018 Extra Life stream raised US$1,417,288 for Extra Life and Dell Children's Medical Center. The 2019 Extra Life stream raised US$1,222,371. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Rooster Teeth shortened the 2020 stream to 12 hours. It raised a total of US$1,163,801 for Dell Children's Medical Center.
On January 26, 2018, Fullscreen President and former COO Ezra Cooperstein was appointed as President of Rooster Teeth.
In May 2018, Rooster Teeth piloted five shows named ''Branded'', ''Gorq's Quest'', ''Achievement Haunter'', ''Million Dollars, But ... Animated'', and ''Rooster Teeth's Murder Room'', and also announced ''Spikeface'', a new 2D/dark comedy show to be coproduced with
Rob McElhenney
Robert McElhenney III ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actor, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his role as Mac on the FX/ FXX comedy series '' It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), a show he created and co ...
and his RCG Productions.
Under Otter Media
In December 2018, Otter Media restructured Fullscreen, consolidating Rooster Teeth, along with
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...
and
VRV, under Ellation. The companies will align sales efforts to attract advertising and partnerships. During the transition, Otter Media CEO Tony Goncalves highlighted the foundation of increased programming quality at Rooster Teeth, pledging changes to the company would be minimal in order to preserve the brand.
Machinima
Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...
was to be subsumed into Fullscreen.
On December 18, 2018, Rooster Teeth added to their overall content library by partnering with animation channels CypherDen and Flashgitz, premiering their future content on Rooster Teeth First.
Under WarnerMedia
On January 31, 2019, Yvonne Secretan,
COO of Rooster Teeth, announced her retirement. Ezra Cooperstein stepped down as President of Rooster Teeth on April 26, 2019. On September 12, 2019, Hullum announced Rooster Teeth had laid off 13% of its workforce, approximately 50 employees. Two weeks after announcing the layoffs,
Jordan Levin was named general manager with most of Rooster Teeth's founders stepping down into creative roles: Matt Hullum stepped down as CEO and became Chief Content Officer, Burnie Burns stepped down as chief creative officer to executive producer and Geoff Ramsey became executive creative director.
In December 2019, Rooster Teeth promoted Doreen Copeland to VP, Head of Production, and Joe Clary and Sean Hinz to Co-Heads of Animation, leading day-to-day operations across all of Rooster Teeth's animated productions; Clary and Hinz will report to Copeland, who will oversee all physical production. In June 2020, Heyman said that he was "laid off" from Rooster Teeth and would no longer perform in ''Red vs. Blue''. Burns resigned in June 2020, maintaining a
first-look deal
A first-look deal is any contract containing a clause granting, usually for a fee or other consideration that covers a specified period of time, a pre-emption right, right of first refusal, or right of first offer (also called a right of first neg ...
with Rooster Teeth.
In August 2020, Rooster Teeth announced it was reviewing its online content library as part of a diversity initiative.
In April 2021, it was reported that AT&T was looking to sell Rooster Teeth and that the company's revenue had dropped nearly $20 million in 2019. However, no such sale occurred and the company was included in the completed merger that formed Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2022.
In the month before, Rooster Teeth and WarnerMedia Access announced the creation of the Rooster Teeth Digital Creators Program, which is intended to support underrepresented talent.
20th anniversary
On April 1, 2023, the company turned 20 years old and as part of celebrations, Rooster Teeth ran a 20-week campaign—bringing back "deep cuts, one-off episodes and fan favorites every week" according to Matt Hullum, leading up to a big finale at the 2023 RTX Convention taking place July 7–9 in Austin. As part of its twentieth year, the company rebranded, changing its logo from a rooster icon and a wind-up set of novelty teeth to a stylized "R" with the appearance of a rooster and changing to a red and blue color scheme from the original red and black. The company's new slogan is "Just Playing".
Closure
On March 6, 2024, general manager Jordan Levin notified employees that the company would close over the next several months. In an email, he cited reasons for the shutdown including "fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage", with it being reported that the number of subscribers to Rooster Teeth's "First" service had dropped to around one-quarter of their peak and that Rooster Teeth as a whole had been unprofitable for a decade. While the Roost Podcast Network planned to remain in operation while Warner Bros. Discovery sought a buyer, Warner also gauged interest in Rooster Teeth's intellectual property, including ''
RWBY
''RWBY'' (pronounced "Ruby") is an American Anime-influenced animation, animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. It is set in the fictional world of Remnant, where young people train to become warriors ("Huntsmen" and "Huntres ...
'', ''
Red vs. Blue
''Red vs. Blue'', often abbreviated as ''RvB'', is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media fr ...
'' and ''
Gen:Lock''.
In April 2024, The Roost Podcast Network would be sold to the talent management company
Night
Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
,
and in July 2024, the ''RWBY'' franchise would be sold to
Viz Media
Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series.
The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...
.
Some employees are still working in order to finalize the shutdown and it is unclear when the company will close entirely. Most employees left on May 10, 2024, with the website updated to a final goodbye message on May 15, 2024. Following the closure, several of the former talent and staff members from Rooster Teeth continued to work together in new ventures.
Legacy
On February 5, 2025, Burns announced he had acquired the Rooster Teeth brand and some of its remaining intellectual property through his company Box Canyon Productions. Some Rooster Teeth productions are set to return, alongside a "reimagining" of Burns's first film, ''The Schedule'', and a new audio adventure, ''Again''.
Productions
Rooster Teeth Animation
Rooster Teeth Animation was a division of Rooster Teeth that was founded in 2014, with
Gray Haddock as the head of the department. On December 13, 2019, it was announced that Joe Clary and Sean Hinz were promoted to co-heads of the department to replace Haddock.
''Red vs. Blue''
In a parody of science-fiction films and games,
[.] and of military life,
[Burns, ''et al.'', 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 2.] ''Red vs. Blue'' tells the story of two groups of soldiers fighting a
civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
in a
desolate and isolated box canyon. Initially, Rooster Teeth expected the series to consist of only six to eight episodes.
[Burns, ''et al.'', 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 4.] However, the series quickly became very popular, receiving 20,000 downloads in a single day, which contributed to bringing Rooster Teeth to fame.
[Thompson, 1.] Accordingly, Burns conceived an extension of the plot.
[.]
''RWBY''
''RWBY'' (pronounced "Ruby") is an
anime-styled CG-
animated
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
web series
A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...
that was created and directed by animator
Monty Oum
Monyreak "Monty" Oum ( ; June 22, 1981 – February 1, 2015) was an American web-based Computer animation, animator and writer.
Oum attracted attention within the gaming community after releasing an animated video in 2007, titled ''Haloid'', wher ...
, and written by Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. The first episode of ''RWBY'' premiered on July 5, 2013, at
RTX 2013 and was released on the Rooster Teeth site on July 18, 2013.
The story takes place in the world of Remnant, which is filled with supernatural forces and shadowy creatures known as the "Creatures of Grimm". Prior to the events of the series, mankind waged a battle of survival against the Grimm before discovering the power of a mysterious element called Dust, which allowed them to fight back against the monsters. On February 1, 2015, Oum died due to a severe
allergic reaction
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...
during a medical procedure, but the series he created continues.
The success of ''RWBY'' also resulted in a secondary series by Rooster Teeth, ''
RWBY Chibi
''RWBY Chibi'' is an American animated comedy web series produced by Rooster Teeth Animation for Rooster Teeth. It is a spin-off of ''RWBY'', where each episode consists of several scenes where aspects of RWBY's characters are usually exaggerate ...
'', which features the show's main characters in
chibi form, with a focus on comedic elements and humor.
In July 2024, the ''RWBY'' franchise was purchased by
Viz Media
Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series.
The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...
, who stated their intentions to continue the main web series along with ''RWBY'' showrunner and former Rooster Teeth employee Kerry Shawcross. They also stated their intentions to produce ''RWBY'' merchandise and search for ways to widely distribute the series via streaming platforms and home video releases.
''Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures''

In July 2010, Jordan Cwierz released the first ''Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures'' (''RTAA'') episode (then known as ''Drunk Tank Animated Adventures''), featuring animations depicting stories told on the ''
Rooster Teeth Podcast''. In October 2011, Cwierz was officially hired to produce the animated shorts full-time as a feature of the podcast.
On October 8, 2014, Rooster Teeth debuted ''Let's Play Minimations''. It features highlights from
Achievement Hunter
Achievement Hunter was an American video gaming division of Rooster Teeth Productions. Founded by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo on July 6, 2008, the website was originally based on the achievement mechanic in video games but grew to become ...
's Let's Plays, initially using 3D animation that resembles the sandbox game, ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
'' and later machinimated using ''
Grand Theft Auto V
''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...
''.
''Camp Camp''
On April 1, 2016, Rooster Teeth announced ''Camp Camp'' with a trailer that aired on their website and YouTube. The series premiered on June 10, 2016, as part of Rooster Teeth's ''Summer of Animation'' promotion. It focuses on a young boy named Max, voiced by
Michael Jones, who is forced to go to summer camp but makes two friends there who help him constantly torment their camp counselor, David, voiced by Miles Luna. It airs on Fridays for Rooster Teeth First members and Saturdays for site members. The show was created by Jordan Cwierz and Miles Luna. The first season was extended by two episodes due to positive reception, for a total of 12 episodes in its first season. ''Camp Camp'' composer was Benjamin Zecker, with Miles Luna writing the outlines for "The Camp Camp Theme Song Song" and "Better Than You." The DVD/
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
combo pack of the first two seasons were released on May 22, 2018, with its third season premiered on May 25.
Its fourth season announced on May 20, 2019, and premiered on the Rooster Teeth site on June 1, 2019. On July 7, 2023, at Rooster Teeth's annual convention
RTX, it was announced that Camp Camp would return with new episodes on March 1, 2024.
''gen:LOCK''
At RTX Austin 2017, Rooster Teeth Animation announced that they would be making a new series called ''
gen:LOCK'' that is a
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...
action drama series by ''RWBY'' producer, Gray G. Haddock.
It was teased at
New York Comic Con
The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, Film, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. With an attendance of 200,00 ...
and RTX London.
It was originally set for a late 2018 release, but was pushed back to January 2019. On May 21, 2018, it was revealed that the main character, Julian Chase, is voiced by
Michael B. Jordan. Jordan co-produced the series through his production company, Outlier Society Productions. The series premiered on January 26, 2019. The first season concluded on March 9, 2019.
On October 24, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered first on
HBO Max
Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...
on November 4, 2021, and concluded on December 23.
Others
In May 2004, at the
E3 gaming convention
A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three business days long, and often held at ...
, Rooster Teeth was introduced to ''
The Sims 2
''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims''. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on ...
'' and realized that the game would be suitable for a series that parodied
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
. The game's publisher
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
allowed them to continue with the project. The result was ''
The Strangerhood
''The Strangerhood'' is a comedy series created by Rooster Teeth Productions. The series is produced primarily by using the machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from video game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio. The anima ...
'', a comedy series that centers on eight strangers who awake one day unaware of where they are or how they arrived there.
[Williams.] Its first season of 17 episodes completed on April 27, 2006.
[.] In 2005, the group collaborated with
Paul Marino[Burns, ''et al.'', 2006, Audio Commentary, ''Strangerhood Studios'' episode 6.] on ''
Strangerhood Studios'', a
spin-off
Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media
*Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine
* ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
commissioned by the
Independent Film Channel
IFC is an American basic cable channel owned by AMC Networks. Launched in 1994 as the Independent Film Channel, a spin-off of former sister channel Bravo, IFC originally operated as a commercial-free service, devoted to showing independent fi ...
.
[Machinima Theater.] This spin-off was the first machinima series to be commissioned for broadcast
and won an award for Best Editing at the
2005 Machinima Film Festival.
[Mackie Winners Announced!.] The second season premiered on September 29, 2015, after the stretch goal was reached for ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
''s
Indiegogo
Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...
crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
campaign.
In 2006, Rooster Teeth partnered with Maybeck Productions to create ''PANICS'', a short series filmed on ''
F.E.A.R.
''F.E.A.R.'' is a first-person shooter Horror game#Psychological horror, psychological horror video game series created by Craig Hubbard in 2005. Released on Microsoft Windows, Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, there are three main games i ...
'' that chronicles the misadventures of Bravo Team, a group of soldiers sent to investigate a
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
disturbance.
The four publicly released episodes were released between September 27, 2005, and October 18, 2005,
[FearFans.com.] and a prequel was released with ''F.E.A.R. – Director's Edition''.
[Gersh.] The mini-series won an award for Best Writing at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival.
Rooster Teeth's other machinima productions are ''1-800-Magic'', a four-episode mini-series created in 2006 using the game ''
Shadowrun
''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic in fiction, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy, and crime fiction, crime, wit ...
'', and ''Supreme Surrender'', a 2008 mini-series made using ''
Supreme Commander''. On February 13, 2017, Rooster Teeth premiered the teaser trailer for their upcoming animated series titled ''Sex Swing'' featuring members of their Funhaus division based on a recurring joke in their videos where they portray a fictional band of the same name.
At RTX 2014, a new animated show called ' was announced, starring Ray Narvaez, Jr. as X-Ray and
Gavin Free as Vav. The show is directed by
Lindsay Jones (who also voices Hilda) and Jordan Cwierz, with art direction by Patrick Rodriguez. The first episode was released on November 27, 2014. The second season premiered on July 19, 2015. Narvaez and Free reprised their roles as the show's titular heroes, with the addition of
Michael Jones as the anti-hero Mogar,
Jessica DiCicco as news reporter Ash Samaya, and Ryan Haywood as The Mad King. When asked by a fan if he would return for a third season if asked, Narvaez stated, "Not interested. I am happy with how Season 2 ended, plus as fun as voice acting was I have no interest in doing it anymore."
A new 2D animation show was released on Rooster Teeth First on March 16, 2018. Created by Georden Whitman, ''
Nomad of Nowhere'' is a western-fantasy hybrid focused on a mute wanderer hunted for being capable of using magic to give life to inanimate objects.
On February 15, 2019, it was announced Rooster Teeth would partner with
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...
for a 2020 animated
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
series based on the ''
Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy'' toyline.
Live-action production
''Rooster Teeth Shorts''
Rooster Teeth first ventured into
live action
Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...
in 2009 with ''Captain Dynamic'', a mini-series to promote the online game ''
City of Heroes
''City of Heroes'' (''CoH'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game originally created by Cryptic Studios prior to the IP’s acquisition by NCSoft. Previously developed by the now-defunct Paragon Studios, it is currently developed ...
''. The series tells the story of a team of writers hired to use the new in-game content creation tools to promote the title character, Captain Dynamic, the 'worst superhero in the world'. Directed by
Matt Hullum
Matthew Jay Hullum (born September 29, 1974) is an American film director, producer, writer, actor and visual effects supervisor living in Austin, Texas. He was one of five co-founders and former CEO of production company Rooster Teeth, which sp ...
and written by
Burnie Burns, the series starred
Ed Robertson of the
Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is a Canadian Rock music, rock band which was formed in 1988 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their Barenaked Ladies (EP), self-titled 1991 cassette becoming th ...
, who is a long time friend and fan of Rooster Teeth. A number of Rooster Teeth employees were present throughout the series, notably
Joel Heyman as Captain Dynamic's primary writer. Actor
Shannon McCormick
Shannon McCormick (born August 19, 1971) is an American film and voice actor. He is known for his work with Rooster Teeth, voicing Agent Washington in ''Red vs. Blue'', List of RWBY characters#Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin in ''RWBY'', and the Q ...
appears as the series' antagonist, Great Face. The series also led to the release of an
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
app called the ''Awesome Button''.
Following the positive reception of ''Captain Dynamic'', Rooster Teeth began producing another live-action series, ''Rooster Teeth Shorts'', a
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...
which parodies life at their offices in a similar fashion to the webcomic. The series features the staff of Rooster Teeth, who all play caricatures of themselves, as well as occasional appearances from voice actors from some of their machinima series. The first season ran for twenty episodes, which along with ''Captain Dynamic'' has been released on DVD.
The second season of ''RT Shorts'' debuted on April 23, 2010, with new episodes released weekly via the Rooster Teeth website until a hiatus during late July 2010, during which the team focused all their efforts towards ''Red vs. Blue'' episodes. With production on ''Red vs. Blue'' complete, weekly ''RT Shorts'' episodes began again on August 28, 2010, until the second season's conclusion with its twenty-fourth episode and DVD release in early December. Shortly before season two's conclusion, Rooster Teeth collaborated with the team behind ''
Mega64'', a video game-centered comedy series. Together they produced four ''Rooster Teeth Shorts'' episodes, which were released on the Rooster Teeth website as the beginning of season three.
Halfway through season four, Burns announced the cancellation of ''Rooster Teeth Shorts'' for several new series. However, on April 1, 2013, Rooster Teeth announced ''Rooster Teeth Shorts'' would return with a fifth season, on the same day, the season premiere episode ''Reunion'' was released and marked the tenth anniversary of the company.
On August 22, 2013, Rooster Teeth released six 6-second mini-episodes exclusively through the video sharing service
Vine
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...
. Six more were published on September 13, 2013. The third set was released on October 11, 2013, followed by a fourth set on November 8, 2013.
''Immersion''

''Immersion'' is a series in which
Burnie Burns and Gus Sorola (
Griffon Ramsey in the first season) test the concepts of video games in real life, such as whether the
heckling that sometimes occurs in
multiplayer video games
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
would negatively affect the performance of real soldiers. Burns joked in the Rooster Teeth podcast that the series started as an "elaborate way for
hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
to do fun stuff and get paid for it."
Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola were the
test subjects throughout the first season.
Gavin Free and
Michael Jones served as the test subjects from the second season onwards. Various other Rooster Teeth employees have served as test subjects in certain episodes including Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Blaine Gibson and Chris Demarais.
During
PAX East in late March 2010, Rooster Teeth released a
teaser trailer
A teaser trailer, also shortened to teaser, is a short trailer (promotion), trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release film or television show advertisement. Sh ...
for a series with a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
episode that tested how easy it would be to drive a car from a
third-person perspective
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to storytelling, convey a narrative, story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to del ...
. Nothing was mentioned of ''Immersion'' until October 2010, when
Burnie Burns stated during the company's podcast, ''The Rooster Teeth Podcast'', that production had begun on further episodes.
Soon after, on November 23, 2010, the company released pictures on
Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
of a door in their office turned into a safe-room door from the video game ''
Left 4 Dead
''Left 4 Dead'' is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the '' Left 4 ...
'' to build hype for the series' debut the following day. The post became the most popular post of the day on Reddit. Rooster Teeth re-released a tweaked pilot episode the following day to begin the weekly series, which concluded with its seventh episode on January 5, 2011.
A new episode of ''Immersion'' premiered on June 17, 2011, after five months on hiatus. The episode's filming took place on May 29, 2011, during Rooster Teeth's convention, RTX, as well as 400 participants dressed as zombies. The episode shows Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola defending themselves from a horde of zombies.
On June 17, Burns said during a panel at Supanova Sydney, that they would be producing a second season, and they were developing concepts. They also confirmed that Gavin Free and Michael Jones of Achievement Hunter would be joining the cast in the second season, replacing Sorola and Ramsey as the test subjects. In the Rooster Teeth Podcast, it was confirmed that the second season began production in 2013. Burns stated in an episode of the ''Rooster Teeth Podcast'' that several television stations were interested in picking up the series for its second season.
During RTX 2015, Burns announced that there would be a third season of ''Immersion''. The third season premiered in November 2015. Airing on August 3, 2019, Burns, Free, and Jones did an episode of ''Immersion'' for Discovery channel's ''
Shark Week.'' Along with being shown a demonstration of mechanical shark jaws, it involved them riding a mechanical shark, surfing on the back of a shark-like boat, and ultimately ended with both of them diving with sharks with shark expert Luke Tipple. The episode is available to watch on the Discovery website.
''The Slow Mo Guys''
''The Slow Mo Guys'' is a science and technology entertainment web series from Thame, England, United Kingdom created by Gavin Free, starring himself and Daniel Gruchy. The series consists of a wide variety of things filmed in extreme
slow motion
Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slow-mo or slo-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...
using a range of
Vision Research
''Vision Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specializing in the neuroscience and psychology of the visual system
The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to perception, detect and process ...
Phantom
Phantom, phantoms, or the phantom may refer to:
* Spirit (metaphysics), the vital principle or animating force within all living things
** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living
Aircraft
* Boeing Phanto ...
high-speed cameras, capable of shooting over 1,500,000
frames per second
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (co ...
. The series premiered on October 15, 2010. On February 20, 2013, Free confirmed that the series had been picked up by Rooster Teeth and that further episodes of the series would be released on Rooster Teeth's website, as well as the series' existing YouTube channel. A best of compilation episode was released by Rooster Teeth Productions for home video on September 10, 2013.
''Day 5''
At RTX 2012, 1,800 fans were used as extras for a scene in post-apocalypse short series called ''Day 5'', which initially followed a man fighting to stay awake after a virus spreads that causes anyone who falls asleep to die. The trailer premiered at RTX 2014.
While the premise was kept the same, the overall story and characters were later changed drastically. In March 2016, the cast was announced, with filming starting that same month. The first episode premiered on June 19, 2016, on both Rooster Teeth's website and YouTube, though the rest of the series was released exclusively on Rooster Teeth's website for FIRST members, making it the company's first premium exclusive show. Its first season concluded on July 31, 2016. Showrunner Josh Flanagan held a Reddit AMA the following day, answering many fan questions about the show. In February 2017, a second season of the show was announced, along with a second season of ''
Camp Camp''.
''Million Dollars, But ... ''
''Million Dollars, But ...'' is an ongoing series in which three Rooster Teeth employees or a special guest each come up with a typically difficult scenario—which the cast comically re-enact—as a condition for which they will be given a million dollars; for example, the person has to date
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
for a year. The early episodes usually featured
Burnie Burns,
Gavin Free, and
Barbara Dunkelman
Barbara Julie Dunkelman
(born July 2, 1989) is a Canadian actress and internet personality. She is known for her work with the former production company Rooster Teeth, where she served as a Creative Director and was formerly the Director of Soci ...
, but as time went on, the cast became more varied. The pilot episode premiered on May 21, 2015, with the series continuing on July 9, 2015. The series now features special episodes devoted to specific themes, such as animation, with all the scenarios revolving around animation. ''Million Dollars, But ...'' has developed a card game that had a very successful Kickstarter, reaching their goal of US$10,000 within 2 minutes and later surpassing $1 million. The card game was released in mid-June 2016.
''On the Spot''

''On the Spot'' is the name of the Rooster Teeth game show that involves members of the Rooster Teeth cast and crew, split into two teams of two people, playing various improvisational games to gain points awarded by the host Jon Risinger. The winning team is awarded a golden trophy that resembles Gustavo Sorola, affectionately called "The Golden Gus". Although promised to the winner, after being broken several times, the trophy now does not leave Risinger's desk. A frequent theme of the show is the chaotic humor; contestants will frequently attempt to annoy and antagonize Risinger, and to mock his show. The points are assigned arbitrarily and inconsistently based on the random whim of the host, as well as being assigned by the broadcast team that is running the show. In an effort to bring variety to the show, the next few seasons have been themed, with the first themed season being "On the Spot goes to Hell!", where Jon, his show, and his contestants go to hell because his show was too bad. The second themed season is "On the Spot: Lost in Time" with each episode being set in a different time period due to a break in the space-time continuum caused by Chris Demarais. The third themed season involves a "family friendly" version of the show titled "On the Spot: The Happy Room", where each episode has a learning subject such as weather or family which the game prompts are based on. The latest themed season, "On the Spot and Chill", has a TV show theme.
Commercial and external partners
In 2014, a bi-weekly series premiered called ''Happy Hour''. The series chronicles the drunken adventures of Geoff Ramsey, Gavin Free, and Griffon Ramsey. The series ended on September 24, 2017.
Created to test elaborate social experiments, ''Social Disorder'' follows Chris Demarais and Aaron Marquis as they compete for points as a game show. The first episode, The Body Bag Experiment, debuted on September 15, 2014, in which Demarais and Marquis had to drag each other around in a body bag trying to get bystanders to help them out. Points were awarded for making up reasons as to what was in the bag or why they were dragging the bag in the first place.
''
Crunch Time'' was a web series that initially aired in September 2016. The original trailer was featured on
The Nerdist's announcement article, and depicted university students creating a machine to allow them to enter other people's dreams. The show stars
Samm Levine, known for ''
Freaks and Geeks
''Freaks and Geeks'' is an American teen comedy-drama television series created by Paul Feig and executive-produced by Judd Apatow that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. The show is set in a suburban high school near ...
'' and ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 epic film, epic war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger ...
'', as well as Good Neighbor's
Nick Rutherford; it also starred
Jessy Hodges and Kirk C. Johnson, who starred in Rooster Teeth's first feature film, ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
.'' Supporting the main cast is comedian
Brent Morin and ''
True Detective
''True Detective'' is an American Anthology series, anthology Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto for the premium cable network HBO. The series premiered on January 12, 2014, and ...
''
's
Michael Hyatt as agents Hobbs and Mullins, respectively.
On Halloween 2012, a partnership between Rooster Teeth and
Blip was announced, with the premiere of their new 10-episode, reality game competition series sponsored by
GEICO
The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is an American vehicle insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. In addition to auto insurance, GEICO provides motorcycle, ATV, RV, boat, snowmobile, travel, pet, event, hom ...
. ''The Gauntlet'' followed gamers from around the United States competing in contests of skills, concentration, agility and stamina, inspired by reality competitions ''
Wipeout'' and ''
The Voice''. The first season was hosted by Ali Baker and Burnie Burns. Season two was hosted by Burns and Joel Heyman and began on September 7, 2013.
Starting in 2014, Rooster Teeth employees Miles Luna and Kyle Taylor started playing video games and recording the gameplay and facial camera footage to create a show originally called ''Sponsor Play''. The show was featured as part of the Sponsor Cut portion of the RT website as an incentive to become a sponsor for their production. This series was renamed to ''Backwardz Compatible'' in November 2016 along with the change of sponsorship format. The series included gameplay of the
original ''Fatal Frame'', ''
Resident Evil 7'', ''
Sonic Adventure 2
is a 2001 platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It features two Conflict between good and evil, good-vs-evil stories: Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and K ...
'', ''
Alien: Isolation'', ''
Dark Souls III'', and others.
On September 27, 2015, a sketch comedy show ''RT-ES'', or ''Rooster Teeth Entertainment System'', premiered for Rooster Teeth First members on roosterteeth.com. The show was produced in Los Angeles, California and was hosted and created by
Colton Dunn
Colton Dunn (born June 30, 1977) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Garrett McNeil on the NBC workplace comedy '' Superstore'' (2015–2021), his work on Comedy Central sketch comedy series '' Key & Peele ...
. The show consisted of Dunn giving interviews, talking about relevant topics, and showing many sketches throughout. It featured comedy, music, and games.
In a Sponsor-Only video, Burnie Burns said that ''RT-ES'' would be put on hiatus. Burns began by saying "occasionally we make some missteps," referring to ''RT-ES''. He elaborated by saying Rooster Teeth would review audience feedback and apply it to the show in the future.
Commercial work
In mid-2006, Electronic Arts commissioned Rooster Teeth to direct
["Red Vs. Blue: The Cash Is Always Greener".] commercials for their
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...
brand of games, including ''
Madden NFL 07
''Madden NFL 07'' is an American football video game based on the NFL that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the first in the video game series to debut for the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles as launch titles and the ...
'' and ''
NCAA Football 07'', for broadcast on television.
[Hullum, "Working Vacation".] Rooster Teeth released some of this work on their website.
[Hullum, "Ahh ... Memories".] In late November 2006, controversy arose over a ''Madden NFL 07'' commercial, when
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...
tight end
The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...
Dallas Clark
Dallas Dean Clark (born June 12, 1979) is an American former professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unq ...
complained about his depiction in the commercial.
[Chappell.] Hit and tackled multiple times in the advertisement by
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...
players, Clark stated, "I haven't seen the commercial, but I'm upset about it. It makes me look like a punk."
In response, Rooster Teeth posted a
director's cut, in which Clark plays and dominates every position.
[Robinson.]
They have also made a trailer for a free to play PC game called ''
Loadout'', developed by Austin-based
Edge of Reality.
Film projects
In February 2014, Burns confirmed that the company was going to launch a
crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
campaign for a feature film, as a way to offer more support options while gaining publicity.
In June 2014, an
Indiegogo
Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...
campaign for ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
'' was launched. The fundraiser hit its $650,000 target within 11 hours and reached over $1.6 million two days later. The film was due for release in 2015. , Lazer Team is the second-most-funded film project on Indiegogo, raising just under $2.5 million.
Production for Lazer Team began on October 9, 2014. On February 21, 2015, the first official teaser trailer was released, and on March 16, 2015, the full trailer was released. The film premiered at
Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse.
Lisa Dreyer ...
on September 24, 2015, where it received a generally positive reception. It was released in theaters on January 27, 2016.
On August 5, 2016, Burns and Free announced that ''
Lazer Team 2
''Lazer Team 2'' is a 2017 American science fiction action comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Matt Hullum and Daniel Fabelo. The film is a sequel to 2015's '' Lazer Team'', and follows the team traveling through a wormhole to find ...
'' had been green-lit by Rooster Teeth in partnership with YouTube Red (now
YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...
), who financed the film, and that pre-production had begun. In December 2016, Matt Hullum confirmed Rooster Teeth would film ''Lazer Team 2'' in Texas during the late spring of 2017 and planned to release it later that year. Daniel Fabelo co-directed the sequel with Hullum.
Nichole Bloom and
Victoria Pratt also joined the cast. Filming for the sequel concluded in April 2017.
At
RTX Austin 2017, Rooster Teeth announced ''
Blood Fest
''Blood Fest'' is a 2018 American comedy horror film written and directed by Owen Egerton and starring Robbie Kay, Seychelle Gabriel, and Jacob Batalon. Other cast members include Barbara Dunkelman, Nick Rutherford, and Tate Donovan, with ...
'', a horror-comedy film directed by Owen Egerton, and starring
Seychelle Gabriel,
Robbie Kay
Robbie Kay is a British actor whose credits include '' Fugitive Pieces'', '' Heroes Reborn'', ''Pinocchio'', '' Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'', and Peter Pan in the ''Once Upon a Time'' television series.
Career
Kay's family mov ...
and
Jacob Batalon. Other cast members include
Zachary Levi
Zachary Levi Pugh ( ; born September 29, 1980) is an American actor. He starred as Chuck Bartowski in the action comedy series ''Chuck (TV series), Chuck'' (2007–2012), and as Captain Marvel (DC Comics), the titular character in the superher ...
,
Barbara Dunkelman
Barbara Julie Dunkelman
(born July 2, 1989) is a Canadian actress and internet personality. She is known for her work with the former production company Rooster Teeth, where she served as a Creative Director and was formerly the Director of Soci ...
,
Nick Rutherford, and
Tate Donovan
Tate Buckley Donovan (born September 25, 1963) is an American actor, comedian and television director. He is known for portraying Tom Shayes in ''Damages'', Jimmy Cooper in '' The O.C.'', and the voice of the title character in the 1997 Disne ...
.
Video game development
''Rooster Teeth vs. Zombiens''
Rooster Teeth vs. Zombiens is a game made by Team Chaos that features some of the main Rooster Teeth personnel in their fight against zombies in the Rooster Teeth office and parking lot. It was made for
iOS
Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
,
Android and
Steam
Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
platforms. It has since been taken down from IOS and Android platforms.
''RWBY: Grimm Eclipse''
At
RTX 2014, Rooster Teeth announced during the ''RWBY'' panel on July 4 that a ''RWBY'' video game was in development, under the working title ''RWBY: Grimm Eclipse'', making this the first video game ever created by the company. An early demo of the game was available for consumers to play at the event. Rooster Teeth CEO
Matt Hullum
Matthew Jay Hullum (born September 29, 1974) is an American film director, producer, writer, actor and visual effects supervisor living in Austin, Texas. He was one of five co-founders and former CEO of production company Rooster Teeth, which sp ...
stated, "''RWBY'' is a natural choice for us to focus on for our first in-house produced video game. Fans can expect that we will bring the same level of originality in action, comedy and design to the video game that has made the ''RWBY'' animated series such a hit."
''RWBY: Grimm Eclipse'' was initially developed as a
fangame by Jordan Scott over the course of five months. A demo version was released on April 1, 2014, to celebrate Rooster Teeth's 11th anniversary, but the demo is no longer available for download. Scott said at the time that it was not an ongoing project, and he had no plans for any future updates. He described it as a "survival-based action RPG" set in the world of ''RWBY''.
On December 1, 2015, the game was released as an
Early Access
Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...
title on
Steam
Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
after rapidly being approved through Steam's
Greenlight
In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the projec ...
feature.
''Vicious Circle''
''Vicious Circle'' was first announced on episode 526 of the
Rooster Teeth Podcast by
Burnie Burns and
Gus Sorola
Gustavo Raul "Gus" Sorola III (born February 22, 1978) is an American actor and podcast host.
Early life
Sorola was born in Austin, and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, near the Mexico–United States border. After choosing to drop out from Rice ...
. It is an uncooperative multiplayer shooter and Rooster Teeth's first original IP game. It was released on August 13, 2019, on Steam.
Subsidiary channels
Achievement Hunter
Achievement Hunter was a
video gaming
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...
channel and division of Rooster Teeth, originally created in 2008 by
Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo as a new creative outlet during production of season 6 of
Red vs. Blue
''Red vs. Blue'', often abbreviated as ''RvB'', is an American web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth. The show is based on the setting of the military science fiction first-person shooter series and media fr ...
. The channel was largely based on the
achievement mechanic found in
seventh-generation video game consoles after being made popular with
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
's release of the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
with the channels produced by a rotating cast Rooster Teeth employees. Achievement Hunter has since become its own division with a consistent cast and has become a core component of Rooster Teeth Productions. In addition to main live-action channel, Achievement Hunter hosts gameplay content on the company's LetsPlay channel. They also formerly managed GameFails and LetsPlay Community channels on YouTube, but those are no longer uploaded on and currently serve as an archive of past GameFails and LetsPlay Community content. On September 18, 2023, it was announced that Achievement Hunter would be converted into an archive channel and all members would be moving onto other projects.
LetsPlay
The LetsPlay channel has served a variety of uses since its launch, being most consistently used as the
Let's Play
A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
channel for Achievement Hunter.
LetsPlay Network
The LetsPlay Network is a former
multi-channel network
A multi-channel network (MCN) is an organization that works with video platforms to offer assistance to channel owners in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetizati ...
(MCN) operated by Rooster Teeth. It was founded by Rooster Teeth co-founder
Geoff Ramsey and was run by Luis Medina alongside Ramsey. Under this new venture, partnerships with several other YouTube channels, in addition to its own Achievement Hunter and Funhaus, would be established to would provide merchandise, promotion, and other benefits for its partners.
On March 28, 2016, a partnership with
Kinda Funny was announced. Members of the group appear in Rooster Teeth content, and Kinda Funny merchandise became available on the Rooster Teeth Store. ''Kinda Funny Live!'' was presented by Let's Play and hosted by Burnie Burns. A partnership with The Creatures was announced on April 4, 2016. Upon their separate formations, channels Cow Chop and Game Attack were separately confirmed to be part of the "LetsPlay family". Game Attack, which was initially spun off from ScrewAttack before becoming its own independent entity, and Cow Chop both had their own sections on Rooster Teeth's website. On May 11, Achievement Hunter announced a partnership between the LetsPlay Network and video game publisher
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...
. Streams and gameplay videos done by any of the Let's Play family members featuring games published by Ubisoft will be released exclusively on the Ubisoft US YouTube channel. On May 31, 2017, it was announced that YouTubers JT Machinima (now JT Music), NoahJ456,
LazarBeam, and
Sugar Pine 7 had joined Let's Play, with JT Machinima being the first of which to have merchandise sold through the RT Store.
On July 12, 2017, it was announced that The Creatures would be disbanding, ending their relationship with Rooster Teeth. In April 2019, Cow Chop announced a "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE", implying the channel would disband by the end of the year. On December 31, Cow Chop posted their final video. In May 2019, Sugar Pine 7 also announced their departure from the Rooster Teeth family. On May 1, 2019, Craig Skistimas of Game Attack announced they as well were now independent, had no further business relationship with Rooster Teeth and was no longer a part of the LetsPlay family. Since their departures, content from The Creatures and Game Attack are no longer hosted on Rooster Teeth's website and Cow Chop & Sugar Pine 7's content are now consolidated under the "Friends of RT" section.
While Rooster Teeth still maintains relationships with
Kinda Funny and JT Music, along with new deals with other entities, the "LetsPlay Network" has not been referenced since the mentioned departures. A similar kind of partnership with UK based
The Yogscast has occurred, a deal that includes their own section on Rooster Teeth's website and apps, but the LetsPlay branding and channel has reverted to its function as the gameplay channel for Achievement Hunter.
Inside Gaming
Inside Gaming was the gaming news division of Rooster Teeth. Originally founded as The Know, an entertainment news division that discusses current events in movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, and media. It was mainly hosted by
Ashley Jenkins
Ashley Burns (née Jenkins; born May 3, 1982) is an American Voice acting, voice actress and internet personality. She is a founding member of Ubisoft's all-female professional gaming group, the Frag Dolls. She founded Rooster Teeth's news divi ...
and Brian Gaar, with a selection of other Rooster Teeth staff from each division within the company. It was initially a single news show hosted on Rooster Teeth's main YouTube channel before moving over to its own channel, where it has since expanded into several different categories of entertainment and tech news as well as several different shows, with the latest being ''Glitch Please'', a successor to their earlier podcast ''The Patch'', that was greenlit for a full series after six pilot episodes.
Previously The Know had hosted ''Leaderboard'', where
Meg Turney had discussed
esports
Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...
news, ''The Patch Game Club'', where the hosts of ''The Patch'' would discuss a new video game they've played each week, and ''Screen Play'', a film and TV podcast. In June 2016, Turney announced on her vlog she was leaving Rooster Teeth to focus more on cosplay.
In October 2017, ''Variety'' announced Eric Vespe would join The Know as senior writer responsible for original reporting, interviews and developing new entertainment shows. Vespe had previously worked at
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proj ...
for 20 years.
On February 14, 2019, Rooster Teeth revived
Machinima
Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...
's Inside Gaming brand, renaming The Know to Inside Gaming. The Know and Machinima's social team were combined with Inside Gaming. Lawrence Sonntag, Adam Kovic, Bruce Greene and
Alanah Pearce from Funhaus hosted Inside Gaming, which includes gaming news, features and reviews. Greene and Sonntag left in 2019.
Autumn Farrell, formerly of Sugar Pine 7, took over Sonntag's position. Farrell and Pearce departed the company in October 2020.
On January 5, 2021, it was announced that Inside Gaming daily would end and all hosts would be joining Funhaus, however, the Inside Gaming weekend round-up would continue.
Game Kids
Game Kids was a kids channel launched in 2014, until 2016.
Funhaus
Funhaus (pronounced "funhouse") was a division of Rooster Teeth Productions, based in Los Angeles, California. The channel launched on February 16, 2015, by the former cast of
Inside Gaming: Adam Kovic, James Willems, Bruce Greene, Lawrence Sonntag, Matt Peake, Sean "Spoole" Poole and Joel Rubin, later joined by former
GameTrailers
''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
talent
Elyse Willems in November 2015 and former
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
host
Alanah Pearce in August 2018. Funhaus produces gameplay videos in a similar manner to Achievement Hunter. In addition to gameplay, Funhaus also produced segments for The Know up until November 2016. It produced many shows such as ''Open Haus'' (Q&A), Google Trends, podcasts called ''Dude Soup'' and "Film Haus", gameplay series such as ''Demo Disk'' and ''Wheelhaus'', a now-defunct live stream called FunhausTV on YouTube, and the now-defunct Sex Swing: The Animated Series. Shows produced by Funhaus for Rooster Teeth TV include "No Idea", "Arizona Circle", and "Last Laugh".
In 2016, Poole and Rubin left Funhaus. Greene and Sonntag left in 2019.
Kovic departed the company after breaching its code of conduct in October 2020.
Pearce announced her departure in late October 2020.
''Death Battle'' debuted in 2010 as a web series published by the website ScrewAttack. ''Death Battle'' became ScrewAttack's most popular show and the website began to shift its focus towards the show, and in 2019 ScrewAttack rebranded to focus exclusively on it. The show was acquired by Rooster Teeth, and all of ScrewAttack's existing content was moved to the Rooster Teeth website. In 2020,
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
sponsored a promotional episode of ''Death Battle'' to advertise the
second season of ''
The Boys''.
''Death Battle'' was published by Rooster Teeth from 2019 until 2024, at which point Rooster Teeth was shut down by its parent company,
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...
.
Following the disestablishment of Rooster Teeth, ''Death Battle'' became an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
series.
Events
Community-run events have occurred regularly since 2005. These included RvBTO in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
(the first event, now retired and replaced with Toronto:Unconventional), RvBCanWest in
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, RT Philly in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, RooTeeth in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, and SideQuest in Austin. In February 2011, Sorola announced the date for the first
RTX, the company's first official fan event. Burns credited RTX "starting" with the early fan events in Canada.
RTX
In May 2011, Rooster Teeth held their first official community event in Austin, Texas. Initially planned as a small gathering for 200 people, demand was so high that over 500 tickets were accidentally sold within minutes of being made available online. Since RTX 2012, each event has been held in the
Austin Convention Center
The Neal Kocurek Memorial Austin Convention Center is a multi-purpose convention center located in Austin, Texas. The building is the home of the Texas Rollergirls, and was also home to the Austin Toros basketball team, until their move to the ...
, with the attendance growing from 5,000 in 2012 to 45,000 in 2015. In February 2017, RTX London was announced, taking place October 14–15 of that year. Amid the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, RTX 2020, dubbed "RTX at Home", was held virtually from September 15 to 25.
Let's Play Live
''Let's Play Live'' is an on-stage event produced by Rooster Teeth in which Achievement Hunter and members of the Let's Play family play video games and perform comedy sketches in front of a live audience. Their first event was held on February 20, 2015, at the
Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. Beginning in 2016, LPL toured multiple cities across North America. LPL returned to Austin the night before RTX 2018 began.
Podcasts
Rooster Teeth Podcast
On December 9, 2008, Rooster Teeth launched the ''Drunk Tank'' podcast. It was renamed the ''Rooster Teeth Podcast'' in 2011, due to the previous name not being attractive to advertisers. The podcast is released weekly, and has won several honors, including being the most downloaded podcast on iTunes and winning the Best Gaming Podcast award at the
Podcast Awards
The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known as the Podcast Awards, are global awards given annually to the best podcasts as voted by the general public. Founded in 2005 by Todd Cochrane of Podcast Connect Inc., the Podcast Awards changed han ...
in 2013 and 2014. As of May 2023, the podcast has over 750 episodes the same year the podcast moved to a multi segment based show featuring new hosts
The Roost
In June 2017 Rooster Teeth launched its own podcast network, called ''The Roost'', representing creators such as
h3h3Productions
h3h3Productions is a YouTube channel created and hosted by American-Israeli YouTuber Ethan Klein. His content consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which he satirizes internet culture. The '' H3 Podcast'' is his current podcast ch ...
,
Game Grumps
''GameGrumps'' is an American Let's Play web series hosted by Arin Hanson (2012–present) and Dan Avidan (2013–present). Created in 2012 by co-hosts Hanson and Jon Jafari, the series centers around its hosts playing video games. After Jafa ...
,
Shane Dawson, ''
Getting Doug With High'' by
Doug Benson, ''Tiny Meat Gang'' by
Cody Ko and Noel Miller, and ''
The Valleyfolk'' by Joseph Bereta,
Elliott Morgan, and
Steve Zaragoza
Esteban "Steve" Zaragoza (born June 9, 1982) is an American online personality, singer-songwriter, musician and web series host, notable for his work on the current events and news series ''SourceFed''. Zaragoza became a host on the series in 2012 ...
among others. In July 2018, The Roost added ''
The Last Podcast on the Left'', hosted by
Ben Kissel
Benjamin Grant Kissel (born July 21, 1981) is an American podcaster, and the host of the ''OK Bud!'' podcast. Prior to ''OK Bud!'', he co-hosted '' The Last Podcast on the Left'' which discussed serial killers, dark history, and true crime sto ...
, Marcus Parks, and
Henry Zebrowski
Henry Thomas Zebrowski Jr. (born May 1, 1984) is an American actor, podcast host, and comedian, known for his work on the Adult Swim series '' Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell'', the film The Wolf of Wall Street, the NBC series '' Heroes Reborn ...
. On September 5, 2018, it was revealed that The Roost would also support both current and upcoming podcasts from The Beam, another podcast network, as part of a partnership between Rooster Teeth and
Hello Sunshine.
A.J Feliciano became the head of the network in August 2020. In October 2020 The Roost began representing prop collecting podcast ''The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of.'' Rooster Teeth and
AEW partnered to create the podcast ''Wrestling With The Week'' in January 2021.
Anthony Padilla, along with
Grace Helbig and
Mamrie Hart, launched podcasts with The Roost in early 2021. As of September 2021, The Roost network has over 100 shows and receives 300 million impressions per month.
Rooster Teeth said the network increased its viewership by 50% and quadrupled revenue in 2021.
In April 2024, ''The Roost'' was purchased by
Night
Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
, talent management company for several big YouTubers and Twitch streamers including
MrBeast
James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), commonly known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, media personality, and businessman. His YouTube videos, where he often hosts elaborate challenges and philanthropic effor ...
.
In an interview with
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
,
A.J. Feliciano stated most of ''The Roost'' staff would be kept on. In the same article Variety claimed The Roost's network of shows has over 350 million views and 20 million monthly downloads as of April 2024.
However they provide no sources for these numbers.
Community and website
Overview
On October 4, 2004, after closing their
phpBB
phpBB is an Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of ''PHP Bulletin Board''. Available under the GNU General Public License, phpBB is Free and open-source software, free and open-sourc ...
forums, Rooster Teeth publicly launched an
online community
An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members engage in computer-mediated communication primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, on ...
and
social networking
A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...
website as a way to stay in touch with fans while maintaining their own platform for distribution.
This site included features such as community statistics, journals, an image gallery and a "mod point system" or "emodomy" that was meant to help members moderate the site with options to like or dislike posts.
Currently, it receives 5 million unique monthly visitors and is home to over 2 million registered users of which 135,000 pay $5 per month as FIRST members.
Rooster Teeth First
To host their own videos, Rooster Teeth paid a
co-location facility $13,000.
The cost from server fees prompted Rooster Teeth to implement a site wide program called "Sponsorships" in 2003 (later rebranded as Rooster Teeth First members), which gave paying members access to content before being offered to the public, in addition to extra site features, exclusive videos and merchandise. Sponsorships have been credited with "keeping the lights on" in the company's early years and a "major reason" for Rooster Teeth's growth and the first way that they monetized content.
On July 1, 2016, the ad-free "Sponsorship" program was rebranded as "FIRST" and offered a new option to upgrade to an even higher-level tier called Double Gold that included such perks as: a 10% discount on all Rooster Teeth items, first access to live event VIP passes and a box of merchandise carrying a value more than $60.
Community
Rooster Teeth's founders often emphasize the importance of the community and how it has helped them to remain relevant in web culture.
In 2010, Burnie Burns stated he, "could not imagine RedVsBlue or Rooster Teeth without the community site."
In 2014 Gus Sorola said, "From the beginning we have always maintained and promoted our own community site, since before YouTube even existed". Building community is key to having an engaged, active audience who really enjoy your content." Burns elaborated on this in September 2014, attributing how they've managed to build a global audience to constantly engaging in a two-way conversation with the company's "hyper engaged core". In 2016, Burns reiterated their growth again to listening and taking the community's feedback to heart.
Burns repeated in 2016 that he considers the secret to the company's successes is their community and their conversation with the community. "Our model revolves around being the home for a core community, and growing it year-after-year ... the loyalty of a community to spread the gospel of your brand is absolutely critical" Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos, after acquiring Rooster Teeth, cited the "insanely powerful community" as a reason they felt the company was a perfect match to buy and later attributed ''Lazer Teams success to the power of the community. In 2015, during the production of Rooster Teeth's first feature, co-founder and Director Matt Hullum stated, "We would not have been able to make ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
'' without the community and really I don't think we would've wanted to." In 2017, Burns re-emphasized that "community is the cornerstone of Rooster Teeth" and one of their core values they impress upon new employees.
Distinguished community members
Community members have distinguished themselves on and beyond the website. Notable people to come from the community include
Gavin Free,
Barbara Dunkelman
Barbara Julie Dunkelman
(born July 2, 1989) is a Canadian actress and internet personality. She is known for her work with the former production company Rooster Teeth, where she served as a Creative Director and was formerly the Director of Soci ...
, and
Kent Nichols. In October 2008, community member "Jeffson" became the first person to post that
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
's presidential campaign had taken out billboards within the Xbox 360 version of ''
Burnout Paradise
''Burnout Paradise'' is a 2008 racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was also released on the PlayStation Store and via Xbox Live Marketplace's Games ...
''. After being posted to his journal, the story was picked up by major news outlets, including
GamePolitics,
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
and ''
Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
''. In 2010, Achievement Hunter community members "AxialMatt" and "Hightower" garnered attention with their ''Japan World Cup 3'' video. For ''
Red vs. Blue: Revelation'', Rooster Teeth used 10 community members to help unlock ''
Halo 3
''Halo 3'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the ''Halo'' franchise following '' Halo: Combat Evolved'' (2001) and ''Halo 2'' (2004), the game's story centers on th ...
'' armor suits for machinima production purposes. In February 2011, Burns tweeted that community member "madmanmoe" discovered the Rooster Teeth website was not blocked by the Libyan government and was blogging events on the website from
Tripoli during the
First Libyan Civil War
The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...
. The longest-running external resource site, RoosterTooths, has existed since 2005 and contains transcripts, biographies, and a history of the ''Red vs. Blue'' title screen.
Community members have been utilized for RT productions at every single
RTX. In 2011, some 400 community members were used as zombie extras for a Horde Mode episode of ''
Immersion
Immersion may refer to:
The arts
* "Immersion", a 2012 story by Aliette de Bodard
* ''Immersion'', a French comic book series by Léo Quievreux
* ''Immersion'' (album), the third album by Australian group Pendulum
* ''Immersion'' (film), a 2021 ...
''. In 2012, 1,800 attendees were used as extras for a scene in the RT production, ''Day 5'', which involved shutting down the main road in downtown
Austin
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
.
In 2013, hundreds of fans were used as extras for a water-bomb attack in an episode of
The Slow Mo Guys. In 2014, casting calls and auditions for minor speaking roles in ''
Lazer Team
''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...
'' were held for RTX attendees. In 2015, attendees were invited to participate in an interactive, "narrative-driven experience" called ''Murder at The RTX'' which involved hunting clues at prepared "crime scenes". On June 20, 2016, Rooster Teeth confirmed they would be filming audience members at an RTX panel for use in their latest production, ''Crunch Time''.
Many employees have come from the community. In 2014, Burns estimated "at least a third" of the company of 85 started in the fan community, adding it "keeps us grounded" and "makes a whole lot of sense from a business standpoint ... I don't have to explain to them what this company is trying to do." Ben McSweeney, illustrator of Rooster Teeth's logo, was hired by Burns after being found on the site's community forums in April 2003.
Others include creative director Barbara Dunkelman, composers
Nico Audy-Rowland and Jeff Williams of
Trocadero, cartoonist Luke McKay, Achievement Hunters Caleb Denecour and Ray Narvaez, Jr., ''Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures'' creator Jordan Cwierz, and ''
RWBY
''RWBY'' (pronounced "Ruby") is an American Anime-influenced animation, animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. It is set in the fictional world of Remnant, where young people train to become warriors ("Huntsmen" and "Huntres ...
'' writer and director Kerry Shawcross. In August 2014, former intern and current content producer Blaine Gibson garnered media attention when he posted photos proposing to
Disney Princesses at
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...
. In July 2014 it was announced at RTX that fan Jordan Scott would be making the ''RWBY'' video game after posting footage of a demo he had made to his YouTube page. It was also announced during the RTX 2014 Achievement Hunter panel that Community Hunters Matthew "AxialMatt" Bragg and Jeremy "Jerem6401" Dooley would be joining AH as its newest employees.
Controversies
Sexual harassment accusations
In February 2019, Rooster Teeth announced that they had ended all associations with voice actor
Vic Mignogna
Victor Joseph Mignogna ( ; born August 27, 1962)Birthday tweet:
* is an American voice actor and musician known for his work in the English dubs of Japanese anime shows, such as Edward Elric from the ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' series, which earne ...
and removed him from the ''
RWBY
''RWBY'' (pronounced "Ruby") is an American Anime-influenced animation, animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. It is set in the fictional world of Remnant, where young people train to become warriors ("Huntsmen" and "Huntres ...
'' cast. Although there were several allegations of inappropriate behavior, no charges were filed against him and Mignogna denied allegations of criminal misconduct. Mignogna pursued defamation lawsuits after the accusations were made against him, and although he lost appeals and was ordered to pay legal fees, the civil rulings only determined whether the statements were defamatory.
In October 2020, Achievement Hunter's Ryan Haywood and Funhaus co-founder Adam Kovic were both involved in scandals involving their leaked nudes; Kovic parted ways with the company.
Days later, multiple allegations of grooming underage fans came out against Haywood,
and he was subsequently fired.
Toxic work culture accusations
In June 2019, dozens of anonymous reviews from
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is an American website where current and former employees anonymously review companies, operated by the company of the same name.
In 2018, the company was acquired by the Japanese company Recruit Holdings (owner of Indeed) for US$1. ...
gained exposure, highlighting a negative
crunch culture of long and unpaid hours, poor management, and over-reliance on temporary employees at Rooster Teeth Animation. Gray Haddock, Rooster Teeth's Head of Animation, stepped down two days after the allegations.
In October 2022, Kdin Jenzen, a former Achievement Hunter employee, posted online about her experiences working at the company. She accused the company of still having a "crunch" culture, not paying her fairly, and homophobic and transphobic abuse by upper management, to the extent that her nickname at the company was a slur.
Hours later, Achievement Hunter cast members, including Rooster Teeth co-founder Geoff Ramsey, responded to Jenzen's message apologizing for their prior behavior at the company, as well as announcing a reduced release schedule for the future.
The following day, Rooster Teeth released a statement addressing the situation, claiming that they were taking steps to improve their work culture and reviewing pay parity at the company.
Following Jenzen's message, numerous other former employees spoke up about their experiences working at Rooster Teeth, adding more accounts of unpaid work and discriminatory abuse while at the company.
Rooster Teeth then released a second statement apologizing for harmful behaviors, listing changes made since 2020 including the introduction of pay bands and the replacement of the entire Human Resources department.
Michael Quinn arrest
On November 20, 2019, Michael Quinn, Rooster Teeth's Vice President of Product Research and Engineering, was arrested for assaulting his wife. Quinn was fired three days later.
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
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Archives
{{Authority control
2003 establishments in Texas
2024 disestablishments in Texas
2014 mergers and acquisitions
Adult animation studios
American companies established in 2003
American companies disestablished in 2024
Companies based in Austin, Texas
Dubbing studios
Entertainment companies based in Texas
Entertainment companies established in 2003
Entertainment companies disestablished in 2024
Film production companies of the United States
Internet properties established in 2003
Internet properties disestablished in 2024
Multi-channel networks
Online mass media companies of the United States
Otter Media
Shorty Award winners
Video game culture
YouTube channels launched in 2008
Gaming-related YouTube channels
YouTubers from Texas
Entertainment-related YouTube channels
Warner Bros. Discovery
Former Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries