Rooster Teeth

Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman,[5] Rooster Teeth was a subsidiary of Warner Bros.

[citation needed] 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.

This video featured Sorola as the main actor, used Peter Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" as background music, and focused on the lack of games available for the Apple Macintosh computer.

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.

[26] It was announced that 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.

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 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.

[49] 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.

Discovery sought a buyer, Warner also gauged interest in Rooster Teeth's intellectual property, including RWBY, Red vs. Blue and Gen:Lock.

[58] In a parody of science-fiction films and games,[59] and of military life,[60] Red vs. Blue tells the story of two groups of soldiers fighting a civil war in a desolate and isolated box canyon.

[63] 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

[93] 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 and written by Burnie Burns, the series starred Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, who is a long time friend and fan of Rooster Teeth.

During PAX East in late March 2010, Rooster Teeth released a teaser trailer for a series with a pilot episode that tested how easy it would be to drive a car from a third-person perspective.

[104] 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 using a range of Vision Research Phantom high-speed cameras, capable of shooting over 1,500,000 frames per second.

[citation needed] 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.

In mid-2006, Electronic Arts commissioned Rooster Teeth to direct[120] commercials for their EA Sports brand of games, including Madden NFL 07 and NCAA Football 07, for broadcast on television.

[137] At RTX Austin 2017, Rooster Teeth announced Blood Fest, a horror-comedy film directed by Owen Egerton, and starring Seychelle Gabriel, Robbie Kay and Jacob Batalon.

[145] Achievement Hunter was a video gaming 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.

― Burnie Burns, July 8, 2016[17]On October 4, 2004, after closing their phpBB forums, Rooster Teeth publicly launched an online community and social networking website as a way to stay in touch with fans while maintaining their own platform for distribution.

[217][218][219] 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.

[255] In June 2019, dozens of anonymous reviews from Glassdoor gained exposure, highlighting a negative crunch culture of long and unpaid hours, poor management, and over-reliance on temporary employees at Rooster Teeth Animation.

[258][259][260][261] 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.

[258][259][260] 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.

[261] 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.

Rooster Teeth's second logo (2023–2024)
Rooster Teeth's office on Congress Street in Austin in 2008
Rooster Teeth's "636" studio, their primary office from 2011 through 2014
RTAA title card
The first episode of Camp Camp .
Ray Narvaez Jr. and Gavin Free cosplaying as X-Ray and Vav
A car with a blacked out windshield and a video screen, used to test driving a car with a third-person perspective in the Immersion pilot
Attendees of RTX 2013 pelting The Slow Mo Guys hosts with water balloons for a slow motion video.
Shooting of a scene in Day 5 in downtown Austin during RTX 2012
On the Spot logo
Colton Dunn, host of RT-ES
A screenshot from Apology , an advertisement which Electronic Arts commissioned from Rooster Teeth
Cast members of Achievement Hunter at RTX 2014
The cast of Funhaus at PAX Prime 2015
The set of the Rooster Teeth Podcast as of 2015