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Rooster Teeth Productions was an American video production company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth was a subsidiary of Otter Media, which is itself a subsidiary of WarnerMedia Entertainment, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia specializing in various forms of web-based entertainment, such as 2D and 3D animation, live action shorts, and machinima (films created using real-time, interactive engines from computer and video games). Originally, the group ran a website called drunkgamers.com[x], a reviewing site in which Burnie Burns, Gus Sorola, and Geoff Ramsey reviewed video games while drunk in order to try to get games from video game developers. Burnie Burns also created voice-over-enhanced gameplay videos of Bungie Studios' popular first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Eventually, these videos led to the creation of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, an award-winning comic science fiction series that premiered on April 1, 2003 and ended on June 28, 2007, with the release of episode 100. Red vs. Blue gained a huge fan base and continues to be the main focus of Rooster Teeth's work. Rooster Teeth eventually branched out to other production formats, such as the gaming content of Achievement Hunter, live-action Rooster Teeth Shorts and the feature film Lazer Team, and animated series such as RWBY, which became RT's biggest mainstream success.[1]

Rooster Teeth began with the production of Red vs. Blue, which premiered in April 2003 and is still in production, making it the longest-running web series of all time after Homestar Runner. Due to server and web hosting costs, the founders created "Sponsorships" which is now known as "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 shorts, series, comedy, Let's Play videos, and full animated productions. Other projects include reality shows, video game development, entertainment news programs, and podcasts. In 2015, Rooster Teeth released its feature-film debut Lazer Team, a science-fiction action comedy. The company hosts an annual convention, RTX, in several cities around the world.

The company's videos were regularly released on its own website and app while podcasts and Let's Plays were still released on their YouTube channel as well. As of March 2019, Rooster Teeth's primary YouTube channel had 9.6 million subscribers and had over 5.8 billion video views.[5] Including all of their other channels, they maintained over 45 million subscribers.

On March 6, 2024, it was announced that Rooster Teeth would be ending their operation after 21 years. Jordan Levin wrote the announcement of the closure citing the "challenges facing digital media" and monetization.[2]

Company history[3][4][]

While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum collaborated with actor Joel Heyman on a 1997 independent film called The Schedule.[5] The film helped Hullum and Heyman to find work in Los Angeles, California, but otherwise had limited success.[5] Working for a local company named Telenetwork, Burns later met Geoff Ramsey and Gustavo Sorola, and the three formed drunkgamers.com[x], a website where the three reviewed various video games while drunk.[6] According to Ramsey, the group tried to receive free games to review, but "incurred the wrath" of several game developers in doing so.[7]

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. This video featured Sorola as the main actor, used Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" as background music, and focused on the lack of games available for the Apple Macintosh computer.[8] Sorola and Burns said that the name change from 'Drunk Tank Podcast' to 'Rooster Teeth Podcast' was 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." On settling on Rooster Teeth, Burns stated, "We named it something else to give people the idea that we were going to be doing more than that".[12] The name "Rooster Teeth" is a euphemism for "cockbite", an insult from the original Red vs. Blue trailer that Burns described as a "touchstone for the audience".

Among the company's core philosophies, Burns stated, "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 had attributed their success to maintaining their community site and was reluctant to join YouTube initially, stating they viewed them as a "competitor". In 2014, having signed a two-year lease, the entire company (now consisting of over 90 employees) moved into Stage 5 at Austin Studios. 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 consider Netflix, HBO, and Amazon their current competition.[16] 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 debut in 2015 with Lazer Team, a science fiction comedy.

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.[21] Medina would co-manage the Let's Play family with Ramsey, including Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, and ScrewAttack, and manage partnerships with third-party brands such as Cow Chop and Kinda Funny. Bregman would be responsible for programming strategy and boosting growth across all platforms such as apps, the community site, YouTube, and Facebook. Hall would 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, a gaming-themed fundraiser with Rooster Teeth's proceeds going to Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. During their 2017 Extra Life stream, they raised a total of $1,209,970.73 USD. The 2018 Extra Life stream raised $1,417,288 for Extra Life and Dell Children's Medical Center. The 2019 Extra Life stream raised $1,222,371 USD.[25]

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 BrandedGorq's QuestAchievement HaunterMillion 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 and his RCG Productions.

In December 2018, Otter Media restructured Fullscreen, consolidating Rooster Teeth, along with Crunchyroll and VRV, under Ellation. The companies would 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.[29] Machinima would 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. On January 31, 2019, Yvonne Secretan, COO of Rooster Teeth, announced her retirement.[32] Ezra Cooperstein stepped down as President of Rooster Teeth on April 26, 2019.[33] 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 November 2019, it was announced that the company's Vice President of Product and Engineering was terminated from his position after domestic abuse and assault charges were filed against him.

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 woukd report to Copeland, who would oversee all physical production.[38]

In June 2020, Heyman officially claimed and confirmed in reply to a fan question on Twitter that he was "laid off" from Rooster Teeth multiple months prior in the fall of 2019, and would no longer perform in Red vs. Blue. Burns resigned in mid-June 2020, maintaining a first-look deal with Rooster Teeth.[9]

In August 2020 Rooster Teeth announced it was reviewing its online content library as part of a diversity initiative. On October 7, 2020, Rooster Teeth issued a statement saying it had "parted ways" with Adam Kovic and Ryan Haywood (of Funhaus and Achievement Hunter, respectively) for breach of the company's code of conduct. Explicit photos of the two were leaked online, and Haywood was accused of grooming fans, some of whom were underage.[10]

Animated production[]

Rooster Teeth Animation was a division of Rooster Teeth that was founded in 2014, with Gray Haddock as the former 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[]

See main article: Red vs. Blue.

Responsible for reviewing games on the Microsoft Xbox, Burns regularly posted gameplay videos of Halo: Combat Evolved and eventually began to add humor to them with voice-overs.[7] The idea for a serial came next,[7] and a trailer for Red vs. Blue was posted in 2002.[11] Six months later, the drunkgamers website closed. However, the following week, the magazine Computer Gaming World asked permission to include the Switch parody in a CD to be included with an issue. To take advantage of the resultant publicity, Rooster Teeth re-encoded the video to point to redvsblue.com, and revived the Red vs. Blue project. Burns also contacted his old friends Matt Hullum and Joel Heyman and convinced them to work on the series.[12]

In a parody of science fiction films and games[13] and of military life,[14] Red vs. Blue tells the story of two groups of soldiers fighting a civil war in a desolate box canyon. Initially, Rooster Teeth expected the series to consist of only six to eight episodes.[15] However, the series became popular quickly, receiving 20,000 downloads in a single day.[16] Accordingly, Burns conceived an extension of the plot.[17] The series' fifth and supposedly final season officially ended with episode 100, released on June 28, 2007.[18] However, the group has continued to release new material, including three additional complete seasons and numerous PSA announcements. These PSAs included a five-part mini-series to promote Halo 3.[19] It is currently on its 17th full season, being directed by Josh Ornelas and Austin Clark and written by Jason Weight. In 2018, the short PSA episodes were officially spun off into their own show, simply titled Red vs. Blue PSA.

In late 2009, animator Monty Oum was hired by RT after his popular Haloid video caught their attention, with his employment being announced at PAX East 2010. He provided pre-rendered character animations to achieve action scenes or character movements in Red vs. Blue that are unable to be done using just the Halo engine. Season Eight of Red vs. Blue is the first season of the series to make extensive use of animation, and Burnie revealed in an interview that he and Oum were in the process of creating a completely animated series with no machinima elements.[20]

Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles won several awards, including four from the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences.[21] Writing for the New York Times, Clive Thompson credited the series as the first machinima production "to break out of the underground".[22] Red vs. Blue videos have been shown in Xbox demo kiosks,[23] and content that is included with the premium "Legendary" edition of Halo 3.[24] Members of the cast were also featured in an Easter egg in the campaign mode of Halo 3. Their relationship with Halo developer Bungie has grown to the point that Rooster Teeth commonly produces videos on Bungie's behalf, such as promotional series for Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach in August 2009 and August 2010, respectively, as well as a video on Bungie's behalf in honor of 'Bungie Day' during July 2010.

Following The Blood Gulch Chronicles, Red vs Blue had three storylines that spread to multiple seasons: the Recollections trilogy (Reconstruction, Red vs. Blue: Recreation and Red vs. Blue: Revelation), Project Freelancer Saga (seasons 9 and 10) and the Chorus trilogy (Seasons 11 to 13). Season 14 was an anthology exploring various characters and animation formats, and Season 15 was the standalone story "Blue vs. Red". Season 15 director\writer Joe Nicolosi also headed the show's sixteenth season, Red vs. Blue: The Shisno Paradox, which started another multi-season arc, finished in the seventeenth, Red vs. Blue: Singularity.

The crew of DEATH BATTLE!, headed by the show's lead animator Torrian Crawford, is responsible for the show's eighteenth season, Red vs. Blue: Zero.


Rooster Teeth Productions' other Red vs. Blue productions consist of five mini-series — Out of Mind, Recovery One, Relocated, MIA and Where There's a Will, There's a Wall - and special "PSAs" released sporadically.

RWBY[]

See main article: RWBY.

RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") is an anime-styled CG-animated web series that was created and directed by animator Monty Oum, 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 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, which features the show's main characters in chibi form, with much more comedic elements and humor.

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's Let's Plays, initially using 3D animation that resembles the sandbox game, Minecraft and later machinimated using Grand Theft Auto V.

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.[52] 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's composer is Benjamin Zecker, with Miles Luna writing the outlines for "The Camp Camp Theme Song Song" and "Better Than You."[53] The DVD/Blu-ray combo pack of the first two seasons was released on May 22, 2018, with its third season premiering on May 25.

gen:LOCK[]

Main article: 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 action drama series by RWBY producer, Gray G. Haddock.[55] It was teased at New York Comic Con and RTX London.[55][56][57] 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 is also set to co-produce the series through his production company, Outlier Society Productions.[58][59] The series premiered on January 26, 2019. The first season concluded on March 9, 2019. On October 24, 2019 the series had been renewed for a second season.

Other machinima[]

See main article: The Strangerhood.

On May 2004, at the E3 gaming convention, Rooster Teeth was introduced to The Sims 2 and realized that the game would be suitable for a series that parodied reality television; Electronic Arts agreed.[25] The result was The Strangerhood, a comedy series that centers on eight strangers who awake one day unaware of where they are or how they arrived there.[26] Its first season of 17 episodes completed on April 27, 2006.[27] In 2005, the group collaborated with Paul Marino[28] on Strangerhood Studios, a spin-off commissioned by the Independent Film Channel.[29] This spin-off was the first machinima series to be commissioned for broadcast[29] and won an award for Best Editing at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival.[30]

See main article: PANICS.

Also in 2006, Rooster Teeth partnered with Maybeck Productions to create PANICS, a short series that chronicles the misadventures of Bravo Team a group of soldiers sent to investigate a paranormal disturbance .[29] The four publicly released episodes were released between September 27, 2005 and October 18, 2005,[31] and a prequel was released with F.E.A.R. - Director's Edition.[32] The mini-series won an award for Best Writing at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival.[30]

In mid-2006, Electronic Arts commissioned Rooster Teeth to direct[33] commercials for their EA Sports brand of games, including Madden NFL 2007 and NCAA Football 2007, for broadcast on television.[34] Rooster Teeth released some of this work on their website.[35] In late November 2006, controversy arose over a Madden NFL 07 commercial, when Indianapolis Colts tight end Dallas Clark complained about his depiction in the commercial.[36] Hit and tackled multiple times in the advertisement by Philadelphia Eagles players, Clark stated, "I haven't seen the commercial, but I'm upset about it. It makes me look like a punk."[36] In response, Rooster Teeth posted a director's cut, in which Clark plays and dominates every position.[37]

See main article: 1-800-Magic.
See main article: Supreme Surrender.

Rooster Teeth's other machinima productions are 1-800-Magic, a four-episode mini-series created in 2006 using the game Shadowrun, and Supreme Surrender, a 2008 mini-series made using Supreme Commander.

Achievement Hunter[]

See main article: Achievement Hunter.

During 2008, a website dedicated to finding achievements was created in which the staff and others demonstrate how to get achievements in various games, called AchievementHunter.com.

The idea for Achievement hunter was first thought of when Jack Pattillo and Geoff Ramsey's interests in gaming achievements led to a realization that there wasn't a community-based achievements website, and in turn Achievement Hunter was created, which shared design, user profiles, and forums of the main Rooster Teeth website. The site was run by Pattillo and Ramsey and a select handful of members from the Rooster Teeth community to help moderate the website, who regularly release achievement guides and easter egg videos.

The current golden members of Achievement Hunter are Jack Pattillo, Geoff Ramsey, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, Ryan Haywood (until early October 2020) and Jeremy Dooley, who replaced Ray Narvaez, Jr. Unlike any other achievement-dedicated websites, Achievement Hunter was highly dependent on public contribution. Because of this, it was able to have highly in-depth guides across many games, even expanding its focus from Xbox 360 games to those on PC, PS3, Steam, and even Windows Phone 7.

Live action[]

Captain Dynamic[]

See main article: Captain Dynamic.

In early 2009, Rooster Teeth first ventured into live-action with a mini-series to promote the online game "City of Heroes", entitled Captain Dynamic. It was based around a team of writers who are hired to use the new content creation tools in the game to promote the worst superhero in the world, Captain Dynamic. Directed by Matt Hullum and written by Burnie Burns, the series starred Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, Rooster Teeth employee and actor Joel Heyman, and actor Shannon McCormick.[38] Rooster Teeth staff and guest actors were used in minor and extra roles. The series also led to the release of an iPhone app called the Awesome Button.

Rooster Teeth Shorts[]

Following the positive reception of Captain Dynamic, Rooster Teeth began producing another live-action series, Rooster Teeth Shorts, a sketch comedy 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 the Captain Dynamic mini-series had 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.

The Gauntlet[]

See main article: The Gauntlet.

In late October 2012, Rooster Teeth debuted their reality series, The Gauntlet. Contestants from around the nation compete to win $10,000. Burnie hosted and Ali Baker was the announcer. Each week, teams competed in various games to advance and get one step closer to the prize, with the losing teams being forced to compete against each other to see who stays and who leaves. Burnie could have chosen to send no one home, or to eliminate the equivalent of a team entirely.

Immersion[]

See main article: Immersion.

At PAX East 2010, Rooster Teeth debuted a pilot episode for a new live action series titled, in which the staff tests concepts of video games in real life. The episode is now available to watch on their website. In October 2010, Burnie announced in The Drunk Tank Podcast that production of new Immersion episodes had begun.

Day 5[]

See main article: Day 5.

Rooster Teeth's first scripted live-action series, as well as their first drama-based work, Day 5 debuted in 2016 and is exclusive to FIRST members. Emerging from Burnie's idea of a low-budget apocalypse, Day 5 follows a junkie who learns that most of humanity has died after falling asleep, and with another group of survivors search for the cause of the mysterious “sleep epidemic.”

Lazer Team[]

See main article: Lazer Team.

Rooster Teeth moved into a new office in early September 2010, which they had made into "half a warehouse" in order to allow plenty of room for live action sets,[39] as they hoped to produce a live-action feature-length film.[40] Lazer Team, written and directed by Matt Hullum, raised nearly $2.5 Million through Indiegogo, the most successful campaign ever seen on the website. It was released in 2015, and got a sequel, Lazer Team 2, in 2017.

Animations[]

RWBY[]

See main article: RWBY.

RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") is an anime-styled American CG-Animated web-series created by the Rooster Teeth Productions' animation studio. The series was created and was directed by animator Monty Oum until his unexpected death in February 2015, with production being held on by his writing partners Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross. RWBY follows four girls who become Huntresses, warriors who defend the world from evil. The first episode of RWBY premiered on July 5, 2013 at RTX 2013 and was released on the Rooster Teeth site on July 18. The second season was announced to be premiered at the 2014 RTX in July 4–6. Ever since the delay to Volume 3 caused by Monty's death, new seasons of RWBY premiere in October

Episodes were at first released on Thursdays, but since Volume 4 they air on Saturdays on Rooster Teeth's website for FIRST members. One week after release they are also uploaded to YouTube and simulcasted on Crunchyroll.

RWBY Chibi[]

See main article: RWBY Chibi.

A comedic sketch show starring the characters of RWBY in a cute chibi style, RWBY Chibi airs during the show's hiatus between seasons, with the first being released between Volumes 3 and 4 in 2016.

Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures[]

See main article: Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures.

Created and mostly animated by Jordan Cwierz, RTAA are crude and comical animations re-enacting stories told in the Rooster Teeth podcasts and shows.

Camp Camp[]

See main article: Camp Camp.

A 2D animated series created by Jordan Cwierz and Miles Luna, Camp Camp is set in a badly ran summer camp full of eccentric children, with the story focusing most in the enthusiastic counselor David and a trio of campers, the cynical Max, the nerdy Neil and the energetic Nikki. The series premiered in 2016, was renewed the following year, and has had new seasons ever since.

Nomad of Nowhere[]

See main article: Nomad of Nowhere.

A new 2D animated series created by Georden Whitman and directed by Jordan Cwierz, Nomad of Nowhere was described as a western/fantasy mash-up about a mysterious nomad traversing a western wasteland that hasn't seen magic in 100 years. It debuted for FIRST members on March 16, 2018.

gen:LOCK[]

See main article: gen:LOCK.

A mecha 3D series written and directed by Gray Haddock which debuted January 26, 2019. Hollywood star and noted anime fan Michael B. Jordan voices the main protagonist, Julian Chase.

Other products[]

Webcomic[]

See main article: Rooster Teeth Comics.

In 2006, Rooster Teeth Productions formed its own webcomic series, Rooster Teeth Comics. The strip satirizes the staff members in their regular daily lives, although often pushing each member's personality to the extreme for comedic effect. The humorous situations often related to real life events in the lives of the staff, or other widely recognized current events. It is drawn by Luke McKay, a member of the Rooster Teeth community, and written by Griffon Ramsey, the former wife of Geoff Ramsey. In 2011, the choice was made to end the comic. The comics were released three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. All five years of the comic have been released in separate collected edition books.

Grifball[]

See main article: Grifball.

In late 2007, Rooster Teeth created a Halo 3 multiplayer game-type called Grifball, played on the map Foundry. The idea for the game came from a joke that was cut from an episode promoting the Heroic Map Pack, in which Grif creates the "laziest gametype in the world"; a round of capture the flag where the flag spawns right next to the capture point. Burnie realized that the frantic nature of only having seconds to stop the flag reaching its destination was fun, and changed it to the "Assault" gametype so that each team had a point to defend, as well as spawning the players with weapons.[41]

The name "Grifball" comes from a gag in season four of Red vs. Blue when Sarge exclaims, "This is the best game since Grifball", while trying to shoot Grif down from a ledge. In reference to the joke, Burnie changed the game settings so that players who pick up the ball turn orange, Grif's armor color. Players who pick up the ball will either explode when they plant the bomb or will be killed by an enemy, referencing Sarge's hatred of Grif.

The gametype became so popular that Bungie began to regularly include the gametype in the Double EXP Weekends playlist of Halo 3 matchmaking, making it a ranked playlist for a limited time in December, 2009,[42] and adding Grifball courts with identical specifications to the original into other maps. Rooster Teeth had organized their own official Grifball leagues, covering the United States, the European Union and Oceania.[43] McFarlane Toys also released a Grifball action figure.

Rooster Teeth created a spinoff machinima miniseries of Red vs. Blue based on Grifball, titled Grifball: Expansion, which follows an untalented Grifball team. It was distributed via Halo Waypoint and ran for three episodes. A follow-up miniseries, titled Grifball: Zero Tolerance was released a short time later and also ran for three episodes.

Rooster Teeth Podcast[]

See main article: RT Podcast.

On December 9, 2008, after temporarily reviving a feature on their website from their previous website, drunkgamers.com[x], where the staff talked about different topics of the week while inebriated with accompanying responses in text with pictures, Rooster Teeth released their first audio podcast available for download through the iTunes Store, Zune Marketplace and their website. It has since become one of the more popular features of the site, at one point becoming the #1 most downloaded podcast on iTunes, as well as a featured podcast in the iTunes Store. New episodes had been released regularly every Wednesday since April 10, 2009, with occasional special episodes or multiple releases in one week. On June 23, 2010, the podcast changed to a .m4a "enhanced" format which allows listeners to use an interactive "link dump" to be able to view more information on the topics of the week's podcast. On August 18, 2010, the Drunk Tank was officially implemented into the Rooster Teeth website as a video series, as well as introducing the segment called Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures.

Since its inception, the podcast had usually featured three or four of the Rooster Teeth staff members as well as the occasional guest such as their musical composer Nico Audy-Rowland or friends or family of the staff members. The main staff members of the podcast include Burnie Burns and Gus Sorola with heavy recurring roles from Jack Pattillo, Gavin Free, and Barbara Dunkelman. The podcast was thus largely comedic commentary on the popular culture of the week, including video games, recent news, website features, sports and upcoming projects as well as highlighting fan-made projects.

The name was later changed to "The Rooster Teeth Podcast" because Rooster Teeth felt they could find sponsors better if their Podcast didn't contain the word "drunk" in it.

Canceled products[]

Red vs. Blue: Animated[]

Red vs. Blue: Animated was an upcoming joint-production between Rooster Teeth and animation studio Humoring the Fates. Since the sneak preview at PAX 2008, little information was risen about the project. The little plot that was revealed sees Church, Simmons and Grif attempting to battle through a Covenant base to free Sarge and Tex from imprisonment.

At PAX East 2010, it was strongly implied by the staff that production on Red vs. Blue: Animated had come to a halt, for reasons of time constraints and money issues. Geoff Ramsey commented, "We're just too lazy to work on it—we like our own schedule; we just can't work with someone else's timeframe."

According to the Rooster Teeth Panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, the project was dead and a lot of the ideas and aspects within Red vs. Blue: Animated had been cannibalized into the original machinima-based Red vs. Blue series through the addition of pre-rendered CGI. The short was eventually both included in one of the Red vs. Blue DVDs and recycled into the season opener of the show's fourteenth season.

X-Ray and Vav[]

See main article: X-Ray and Vav.

X-Ray and Vav was an animated series based around the superheroic personas of Ray Narvaez, Jr. and Gavin Free in the Achievement Hunter videos, with the cartoon also featuring various in-jokes related to AH. Created by Jordan Cwierz and Lindsay Jones, the show ran for two seasons and two specials between 2014 and 2015, but Ray was no longer part of Rooster Teeth and was uninterested in continuing the story. Most of the crew moved onto Rooster Teeth's next 2D animation, Camp Camp.

Sex Swing: The Animated Series[]

See main article: Sex Swing.

Sex Swing was an animated series based around the fictional band created by Funhaus in their videos, with the cartoon having six episodes. Director of programming Evan Bregman noted it was "a ridiculously fun show to develop and work on, but we didn’t quite get it to where we needed to be on multiple levels, viewership included."[44]

Recurring collaborators[]

Actor/actress RvB 1-5 RvB 6-8 RvB 9-10 RvB 11-13 RvB 14 RvB 15-17 RWBY X-Ray and Vav Camp Camp Nomad of Nowhere Day 5 Gen:LOCK
Founding Fathers
Burnie Burns
Matt Hullum Cameo Cameo Cameo
Joel Heyman
Gus Sorola Cameo
Geoff Ramsey
Staff
Kathleen Zuelch Cameo Cameo
Becca Frasier Cameo Cameo Cameo
Miles Luna Cameo Writer
Kerry Shawcross Cameo Writer
Gray Haddock Cameo Cameo
Lindsay Jones Cameo Cameo
Michael Jones Cameo Cameo
Gavin Free Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Barbara Dunkelman Cameo
Ryan Haywood
Adam Ellis Cameo Cameo
Ray Narvaez, Jr. Cameo Cameo
Arryn Zech
Eddy Rivas Cameo Cameo
Maggie Tominey Cameo Cameo
Jordan Cwierz Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Blaine Gibson Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Aaron Marquis Cameo Cameo Cameo
Patrick Rodriguez Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Kyle Taylor Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Joshua Ornelas Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo Cameo
Anna Hullum Cameo Cameo
Joe Nicolosi ✓ (Chibi) Writer
Caiti Ward Cameo
J.J. Castillo Cameo
James Willems
Lawrence Sonntag Cameo
Ashley Jenkins Cameo Cameo Cameo
Chad James Cameo Cameo Cameo
Austin actors
Shannon McCormick
Jen Brown Cameo Cameo
Samantha Ireland Cameo
Lee Eddy Cameo
Kirk Johnson
Melissa Sternenberg Cameo Cameo
Professional voice actors
Elizabeth Maxwell
Christopher Sabat
Yuri Lowenthal
Kent Williams
Ricco Fajardo Cameo
SungWon Cho

Trivia[]

  • The name Rooster Teeth is a euphemism for Cockbite, an insult used in one of the group's trailers.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuhAF1F4jWc
  2. https://roosterteeth.com/g/post/af39b172-be74-4398-94f8-908c3f4c5d6e
  3. https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2018-05-11/a-brief-history-of-rooster-teeth/
  4. https://old.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/ft2ydx/roosterteeth_2013_company_photo_where_are_they_now/
  5. 5.0 5.1 Moltenbrey, Gross.
  6. Gross; Konow, 1.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Konow, 1.
  8. Mac Gamer Switch Parody.
  9. https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/burnie-burns-exits-rooster-teeth-moves-out-of-us-1234631904/
  10. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/10/adam-kovic-ryan-haywood-rooster-teeth-scandal/
  11. Konow, 2.
  12. The History of Red vs. Blue.
  13. Leggat
  14. Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 2.
  15. Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 4.
  16. Thompson, 1.
  17. Waters.
  18. Sorola.
  19. All New Red vs. Blue Series.
  20. Interview on Episode 61 of Jeskid's World
  21. Machinima Awards 2003 Results; Mackie Winners Announced!.
  22. Thompson, 2.
  23. Red vs. Blue: The Interview Strikes Back.
  24. Falo 3 Details Explosion.
  25. Kosak, 1–2; Thompson, 5.
  26. Williams.
  27. Saldaña.
  28. Burns, et al., 2006, Audio Commentary, Strangerhood Studios episode 6.
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 Machinima Theater.
  30. 30.0 30.1 Mackie Winners Announced!.
  31. FearFans.com.
  32. Gersh.
  33. "Red Vs. Blue: The Cash Is Always Greener".
  34. Hullum, "Working Vacation".
  35. Hullum, "Ahh... Memories".
  36. 36.0 36.1 Chappell.
  37. Robinson.
  38. http://archive.is/kN29y
  39. Burnie, Jeskid TV interview.
  40. Geoff; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE6Ge8Af9yk
  41. http://www.grifball.com/history.php
  42. Bungie Weekly Update, November 20, 2009
  43. http://www.grifball.com/divisions.php
  44. ebregman's post

External links[]

Wikipedia
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