Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery will sell off the Austin-based studio’s content and intellectual property and lay off 150 full-time employees as well as dozens of contractors and content creators.
Say it ain’t so! After more than two decades, Austin-based studio Rooster Teeth (RT) has been shuttered by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. General manager Jordan Levin announced the sad news in a meeting on Wednesday and through a memo to staff.
“[I]t’s with a heavy heart I announce that Rooster Teeth is shutting down due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage,” Levin wrote in the memo. “Our legacy is not just a collection of content but a history of pixels burned into our screens, minds, and hearts.”
The closure will affect the studio’s 150 full-time employees as well as dozens of contractors and content creators, who will all be laid off. While once boasting a headcount of around 400, the company had dwindled after operating at a loss for a decade.
Warner Bros. Discovery is already in the process of selling off rights to RT content and intellectual property, such as the anime series RWBY, Halo spoof series Red vs. Blue, and Michael B. Jordan’s animated mecha series Gen:Lock. The Roost podcast network is also for sale but will continue to operate in the interim.
“Warner Bros. Discovery thanks Rooster Teeth’s groundbreaking creators and partners, and the strong management team, for their many years of success,” the media company said in a statement obtained by Variety. “Your passionate and loyal fans are testament to your achievements.”
Rooster Teeth was founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman and joined Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022.
Potentially foreshadowing the inevitable, the studio recently pulled some its most popular content off YouTube due to challenges and costs in animation production for digital media.
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