Rooster Teeth, a studio that pioneered machinima with its Red vs. Blue series and went on to develop a fandom-focused stable of shows, videos, and podcasts, is being shut down by parent company Warner Bros.

Rooster Teeth’s general manager pinned the closure on “challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage.”

The company’s name is a slightly more polite version of a disparaging remark (“cock bite”) made about the series narrator early on.

Amid allegations and acknowledgments of a crunch culture, discrimination, harassment, and underwhelming or non-existent response from managers, the company underwent a rebrand for its 20th anniversary in April 2023, with a new logo and a new “Just Playing” tagline.

In 2018, Ars features editor emeritus Nathan Mattise visited RTX, calling it the “biggest gaming and Internet event you’ve never heard of.”

Discovery property scuttling, the conglomerate has been on a cost-cutting and catalog-thinning streak of late, potentially driven by tax break opportunities.

Saved 71% of original text.