This Killed Rooster Teeth

I BROKE MY AUDIO SO IT DIDNT PLAY DURING THE PODCAST INTRO WHICH IS BOTH EMBARASSING AND FUNNY SO YEAH THATS ABOUT IT. SEE YA

It's really hard to sustain when you have owners who need a cut and those owners need to give a cut to their owners... everything being owned by 20 companies is a huge problem that will keep getting worse

As someone who worked at fullscreen throughout this entire thing and stayed until pretty much the complete disintegration of it. My biggest takeaway from watching all of this is that traditional media companies need to stop acquiring digital companies. They just don’t get it and shutter them. Rooster Teeth was thriving while at fullscreen, they were always a darling during the all hands meetings, but once the Warner acquisition officially went through is when things started to shifts drastically.

man literally my childhood consisted of rage quit, minecraft lets plays, countless gta videos. man it truly is a sad sight to see

I really hope BestFriendsToday makes it through this, love those guys, and they haven’t got the recognition they deserve so it’d be a shame to see them go before they do

I love roosterteeh man. Gavin, Michael, Ray, Geoff and jack were part of my childhood. Their Minecraft series was my favorite. Need to rewatch it now for nostalgia

I watched RWBY up until the 6 or 7th volume, I'm still obsessed with the soundtracks, but despite how little I really interacted it genuinely kinda hurts seeing Rooster Teeth come to an end especially so abruptly. It holds a lot of nostalgia for me

Best friends today have so much potential and are on the verge of taking off. They need to be bought out, they will be massive if they are given a chance by someone.

I still remember Burnie talking to Phil years ago about all the things they’d done to scale and insulate the company from youtube issues, the importance of multiple revenue sources, and the importance of maintaining the trust of the community because once you lose that it’s over. Flash forward to all these years later after he left the company and they managed to undo all the insulation. They sold out to a bigger company that required hire profit margins making their multiple revenue sources moot, and they repeatedly damaged the community trust they once had

As someone who grew up wanting to animate rooster teeth inspired me to work on my own projects, especially Monty that man was a genius. Sad to see it end but I hope it shows how pivotal they were in changing the industry

so sad man. they had just created one of the funniest series on the page with Best Friends Today now we might not see a full year of content from them. would love to see BFT and other staff from RT be involved with OffBrand maybe

Really sucks to see especially with newer shows like best friends today (which is fucking amazing) now no longer having a home. I dont know how much new stuff rooster teeth was funding but BFT has been incredible and it sucks to see this happen to them.

Rage quit, achievement hunter videos of gta, Minecraft and halo were my first truants into RUclips gaming content. Sad to see them go but I will still continue to follow the content creators that made that company so special to me.

i hope bft sticks around

Giving my support to bft, hope they can make it through all this.

Really tragic end for RoosterTeeth. I think we all knew the end was coming, seeing as the company has been deteriorating the past few years from the many controversies, the pandemic, Burnie leaving the company, but man I wasn't expecting this to happen now. It's like hearing about the death of a family member you haven't seen in years. I've only kept up with some of their podcasts recently, but at their peak, that company dominated my teenage years. Every single day I would come home from school and watch hours of Achievement Hunter like it was TV. I would fall asleep to the sounds of the RT Podcast. Some of my biggest idols were the RoosterTeeth founders. What they were able to build from just a spare bedroom, that over the years grew into a massive company with a loyal community, numerous shows, movies, games, podcasts, and even an annual convention...I don't think we'll ever see something like that again. The company was far from perfect obviously, but man what a legendary run. Very bittersweet to see it go.

RIP Best Friends Today :(

I used to love Achievement Hunter and bunch of other offshoot RT channels. I hope everyone lands on their feet. I can't believe they all found out at the same time as us, it's so fucked

Roosterteeth and, more specifically, Achievement Hunter was my first introduction to RUclips as my primary source of entertainment. It was the first channel I subscribed to. For years, I would watch every single video Achievement Hunter put out. I looked forward to it every single day. When I was living alone, I would put it on in the background to fall asleep.
I haven't really kept up with them in recent years. Maybe their content changed, but I know I definitely did. But, I still go back and watch their older stuff while I'm working, and I still enjoy it. I'm sad to see the company end even though I didn't really watch them anymore.

Making Offbrand a worker's coop is honestly the single most impressive thing I heard from Ludwig. I think a lot more people in the creative space should give that model a try

Rip Roosterteeth, thank you for all the times. Hoping everyone there finds a bright future and another home ❤

Grew up on Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter, and I just can't watch their stuff anymore :/ Still gonna miss them

Ludwig making Offbrand a worker co-op is just so ungodly based. Fucking so cool.

I hope that Best Friends Today continues to thrive even after this happens. They are one of the best channels I have seen in recent times, and I just want them to continue to get bigger and bigger.

I always appreciated The Yogscast for having that sustainability mindset instead of endless growth and emulating/merging with legacy media. They just keep chugging along, keeping it real and local and having fun. They've kept that edge and charm. Basically the The Office UK to Rooster Teeth's The Office US

I really hope BestFriendsToday keeps making stuff love that channel and they're so new

Geoff tried so fucking hard to keep this company afloat when everyone else jumped ship

Rip rvb was truly an og

SAVE BEST FRIENDS TODAY!!!

RIP Monty Oum still on god i miss him

Maybe Offbrand could pick up some Rooster Teeth IP's like BFT

They had just started a new season of Camp Camp, too. That must be really hard on the team that was working on it.

So sad to see. Best friends Today quickly became one of the most fun & enjoyable shows on the internet.

Honestly, it's best seeing RT get laid to rest. Seeing it's almost lifeless corpse just flopping around for the past few years was just pathetic, and sad.

i cry every day for best friends today

I've been watching Rooster Teeth die over the past decades. I was there. I remember seeing them for the first time in the extra CD in the Halo 2 Special edition. RvB, Achievement Hunter, Let's Play, RWBY. It was beautiful. It was a product of it's era. It was my childhood. And honestly, it died years ago. It's been dead for a long time, but its memory still exists in the annals of my upbringing.

This is a real sad day for me rooster teeth have but out some of my favourite content with the podcast I listen and other amazing things they do

Rooster Teeth’s animated shows were some of my favorites. I really hope someone is able to continue them.

I think everyone saw this coming years ago but it still hurts to see

We can't hear the intro of the RT podcast

The only thing that matters out of this is BFT. Someone needs to pick them up

They still have great podcasts to this day. Hope the find a way to continue them. RIP RT

If you ever watched the Achievment Hunter/Let's Play play the Oylimpic games and Remember Gavin yelling "Mark Nutt" a bunch. My summer league swim team would chant Mark Nutt as one of our chants cause my buddy on the team would just yell it so all the other kids would yell it aswell. I'm pretty sure just me and him knew what it was in reference to tho lol. Even knowing Rooster Teeth as a whole wasn't doing so hot for awhile now, now that it is no longer it feels alot more impactful than anticipated.

I've been binging through Tales from the stinky dragon since august last year. Was just about to catch up to the present day, would be devastated if they couldnt continue their podcast any longer. Really funny and talented people.

Machinima's fall was legit one of the worst things to happen to original game movie media

This breaks my heart as I really enjoyed a lot of their shows/podcasts and I'm sad to see them go. Thank you Rooster Teeth for being such an inspiration to so many people!

RWBY was my first ever "anime" inspired show that I watched. It really sucks knowing the show goes out without a proper ending. This company has made a lot of bad decisions which I believe lead to its downfall since I remember being there for it. Hurts to see it go because a lot of these shows were absolutely amazing and I hope someone takes over.

i know Funhaus was very late to the roosterteeth party (originating from Machinima as "Inside Gaming"), but i loved both Achievement Hunter and Funhaus. they even collaborated sometimes which was like my dream come true.

Ludwig please check out Best Friends Today.
They are content gold, I love their dynamic.

3:45 That would be an amazing frog sound for a videogame

Oh man, rooster teeth was such a big part of my childhood and teenagehood, it was obvious ever since the toxic work place and the ryan SA scandals that they weren't ever gonna be the same company the I used to love but still. This just sucks

I miss Jack, Jeff, Gavin, and Michael. The tower of pumps will live on forever

Hey another part of Rooster Teeth’s down fall is a lack of a unified vision. They had their fingers in so many pies where they were focused on quantity over quality. For mainly looking at their animated pieces and Red vs. Blue I know a lot of the story complaints were that it felt either rushed or that it wasn’t very coherent. When your making a creative product with a brand in mind you need to have a vision. Or at least an idea for the end game. If they made their content either connected or for the purpose to refine their skills in whatever area their vision was focused on, it definitely would have lasted longer as far community investment was involved.

theres a channel owned by rooster teeth called best friends today that make some of the funniest shit ive seen in a while. I hate that they had to exist through a company that was on its way out. HOWEVER, when warner bros. sells all of rooster teeth's IP, your company could buy them and they can keep their shit going. PLEASE DO IT LUDWIG 🙏🙏

I hope Death Battle survives and continues. They still pull in a lot of views so there’s a chance it continues. If not, I want to see an episode of Wiz vs Boomstick. Seems like the perfect sendoff for the series.

I've been a fan since 03,I even have the thing that got me into them, a CD from s magazine with RvB on it. It's heart breaking to see this happen but we all knew it was gonna, it's no longer a mom and pop style company but more just a corporate entity. I can't imagine how the og people feel watching their baby die but at least they're not beating it into the ground

I know noone is talking about it but i was so excited for the next season of camp camp they said was for this summer, now i'm just sad

Hopefully best friends today sticks around somehow

there’s an amazing channel produced by rooster teeth called “Best Friends Today” and i feel so bad that this happening to them :/

Seems like a lot of our first introductions into youtube was AH/RT :( sucks that its gone and the place turned into a toxic work environment but it did inspire a lot of people which is cool to see

I hope Stinky Dragon Adventures will continue, I've been enjoying the podcasts and the show.

It wasn’t the contraversy, it was too much ambition. Anytime before 2016, if they would have stayed the same size and focused on making their existing content the best they could, they would still be extremely popular. Spread too thin, animation in general is known to be extremely taxing on employees yet they jumped straight in, selling out, too many employees, quality of content drops, passion gets lost, etc. They did manage this mistake better than any other content company I’ve seen though, being able to stay afloat for many years after they dug themselves in too deep, when many popular content creators can lose everything overnight.

It is sad to see Rooster teeth go but the signs of this happening has been around for a long time now. I am sad to see an OG internet grandfather is gone and I wonder what happens with RWBY as the last thing I really cared about.

Wow that RT intro was so nostalgic I pretty much went momentarily deaf with joy...😅 😂

Rooster Teeth started to die when fullscreen bought them and they refused to listen

I think with RoosterTeeth while they might not have been centered around a single creator they definitely were centered around a handful, maybe 10 or so at the peak, and as these creators who the fans love either retired(Burnie), were forced out(Joel), quit(Ray), or were pushed into the background(Geoff). The content started to become worse and worse and the fans started to leave. Its been about 10 years now sense RT had put out anything really groundbreaking and nearly as long sense their original very supportive fanbase started to complain about many issues with the company that are now well documented.

No volume on the RT video intro.

rooster teeth got my threw the awkward middle/high school years. Red vs Blue and RWBY were my favorite
sad to see them go.

SHOUT OUR BEST FRIENDS TODAY

Working in the company I work in now, we recently got combined with a bigger pocket. As of now they have told us we can still work as if nothing happened, we just have deeper pockets to do what we need. So I can understand wanting to join forces with another company that can help you strive for more, because there are pockets you can use.

BEST FRIENDS TV NEEDS JUSTICE

It’s crazy to see the end of an era. I’ll never forget my first time watching them which was through a very old Rage Quit video. Soon Fails of the Week, AHWU and Game Night videos became staples for me. I even remember their first ever Minecraft LP because it came out the same day I graduated high school - I was watching it as I got ready for the ceremony. I also loved their other partner channels - specifically Funhaus and Cow Chop. Rooster Teeth was a fundamental source of entertainment in my life, and even though I haven’t watched a main channel video in years, it’s still sad to see them close their doors officially.

I’ll miss Funhaus the most!!!

i was really surprised and happy to hear that youre developing offbrand as a worker's coop. its not common to see at all and am excited to see how that affects the growth and future of your company

There will always be 5 more years

Rooster Teeth was an insperation to us all

Rooster Teeth killed Rooster Teeth.

I've poured so many hours into watching various Rooster Teeth content over the years. It's shitty to see them closing their doors but it makes sense.
Hopefully their past content remains available to watch.

This was so unexpected and so sad..

I thinked what killed it for me was after the controversies with the scummy people and leaked in house vids, and the cartoons and shows honestly goin' on way too long. I loved and did wanna see more of camp camp, but holy crap that was a lot of red vs blue and kinda fluff with RWBY until the storybook arc that felt like it was getting a good story arch with intention going. Though this won't ruin my memories for everything they've provided; just like with something like NigahigaTV and Tobuscus, I can always go back and rewatch, or just remember and enjoy what gave me joy back in the day.

Ryan was the beginning of the end. Losing someone so big to their gaming, livestreaming, and live event cast, while also forcing them to deleting a high percentage of their best performing videos, while also giving so much negative press to the company, started the first real exodus of viewers. I genuinely dont think they ever properly recovered

WB didn't kill Roosterteeth, they did that to themselves.

My only wish is that Camp Camp survives. I wasn't there for Red vs Blue or RWBY but i fell in love with Camp Camp

It really wasn't surprising. They've been going SO FAR down hill for how many years now, their latest video was just "Our parents react to our cartoon" like what? I feel bad for people who just worked there, but I feel nothing for the people who changed it as much as they did, how much they decided to make massive changes that ended up being far worse for quality over most of their subsidiaries. It's sad, but it's just expected when they had what 30k views on avg every single video. They absolutely wouldn't have been able to turn it around if Covid didn't happen. They dug their own graves turning content only for money instead of being entertaining (like how AH went from being a group of friends being dumbasses making/having fun with each other to a group of people who just had a small podcast and were acquaintances but just didn't merge like the older groups did....they were all funny in their own ways, but they weren't funny with each other and it just wasn't entertaining to watch).

The archival has begun. Don't let anyone get in the way.

Red vs Blue is incredible the first RUclips videos I watched, heavily inspired the game im working on

Its bittersweet because I remember watching so many different series over the years, achievement hunter, shenanigans, lets play, rage quit, ahwu, RVB, etc. Im convinced at the end of the day that the controversy related to certain core individuals collapsed the entire dynamic. Ill be honest, I probably wont miss the company itself more then the people working for it, because so many who worked for them did great work but it was overshadowed by the issues and the various controversies.

This can't be happening can it? These guys were my entire childhood! I still remember first seeing their RvB PSA on youtube without knowing who they were. Then I saw another video on Halo Waypoint and decided to look them up and realized,
"Oh, so this is where that one Halo video I saw came from?".
And I've been watching them ever since then until I just drifted away from them.

6:36 "Making cool stuff before we're all dead" Was Offbrand born out of an existential crisis (it looks that way)? 🤔
7:55 "Hopefully in 20 years you don't see the shutdown of that, and that's able to outlive me, that's just my goal" That's one response for an existential crisis, I guess: (enduring) legacy. Currently legacy is the only way we have to "cheat" death in an abstract way, so I can see why you chose that answer (I don't think I can share that kinda answer, but I do appreciate the fact yours is a positive one).

Dude it was heartbreaking hearing Rooster Teeth had shut down this afternoon. RT was genuinely the first content I consumed through their RT Shorts and RTAA, It has absolutely shaped the comedy and content I create myself. Currently doing my dissertation and final project for university and my final project is a comedy sketch in the style of old RT Shorts.
The content they made was incredible, I got into Achivement Hunter through AHWU and then through them found Cow Chop which I became such a big fan of. It sucks to see how RT went but I'd be damned if didnt say they did so much for so many people. RIP legends

Before seeing the "reasons" at ~4:50. I think the main thing that killed the company was Burnie Burns, leaving the company.

goodbye roosterteeth was fun when i was young, all those friends i made from you and all those laughs i got from you, but there was also some very very bad times, but i hope everyone there will be taken care of

Rooster Teeth will forever have a place in my heart. Just too many good moments, it makes a grown man cry to finally have to admit they’re gone.

Man I just woke up and this is the first thing I see?😭 I discovered AH when I was 13 and 10 years later I still go back and watch some of their old stuff. I mean we all pretty much saw how it was going the last few years so it's not really a surprise but when something goes that long and is a huge chunk of many peoples lives you kind of trick yourself into thinking it'll be around forever. I never got involved much in the community because I was a nervous kid & none of my irl friends were interested in that kind of thing so it really was a huge part of my personal down time, never missed a video. Like Nick & literally everybody else it was seen as "the dream job" before being a youtuber was as big as it is today. Due to general anxiety & lack of interested participants I unfortunately never got to experience RTX like I wished to. No matter all the dodgy parts it's undeniable that RT was a huge foundation for content creation and effected many peoples lives, it's a bittersweet end but I'm truly grateful for even being a small part of its history. On the plus side I think many of their creators new & old will be better off with the freedom to create on their own content, so I wish the best of luck to all the staff on their future endeavours!❤

Honestly? It *did* work out for Rooster Teeth, 20 years is an incredible run especially given when they existed in the space. Like you said, nothing lasts forever. It's unfortunate to see it go but let's be happy we had it for as long and as strong as we did

rip Akira Toriyama

The hilarious thing about RoosterTeeth (and I think LinusTechTips too) is that these companies were perpetually afraid of the day that youtube stops working, either due to an algorithm/ advertisment change or just shutting down due to not making a profit.
They were some of the first youtubers to preach the importance of diversifying revenue streams.
All of this worrying about what something from the outside would do to them, and yet they never once looked inward. Both of these companies have been damaged the most by their own actions.

Original RWBY:
Lets make an amazing show with a strong fandom and make it free so its a big one and they will buy merch.
RWBY now: doesn’t have to be good and people have to pay to watch.

Small correction, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Aniplex USA (an already established Sony brand) merged after they were purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment, so I'm guessing their division was sold off during or after that merger and purchase completed.
Edit: Also a little weird that this happened after RWBY literally just had their Part 2 crossover film with the DC Universe released what, two or so months ago? Also, that means fucking Camp Camp is probably gonna disappear forever, probably my favorite thing they've produced.

7:01 I think that point is fairly valid, but there was a core of creators at RT that most people came to watch (Original AH Crew, Burnie, Gus, etc.) Once they left or started making less content and were replaced with new people viewership fell off significantly