Warner Bros is shutting down Rooster Teeth

[Bob Schroeck]

Variety article here.

So... at least since Warners bought it two years ago, RT has never been profitable. They tried to sell it, but got no buyers, so they're closing it down entirely. About the only good news coming out of this is that they want to retain the rights to and keep making RWBY, Red vs Blue and gen:LOCK.

[Norgarth]

it's odd how often these smaller companies seem to do well, right up until they get bought out by a major corporation, and then they end up not making money. 

One might think that trying to make a small company operate like a big one doesn't work well.  Other times the new owners seem to change the direction of the products assuming the old fans will simply accept the new direction blindly.

[Shepherd]

it's odd how often these smaller companies seem to do well, right up until they get bought out by a major corporation, and then they end up not making money. 

In a lot of cases, the act of buying a company means the debt for that purchase winds up dumped onto the purchased company. So even if it was profitable before, it is no longer profitable when trying to pay off the cost of buying it.

Sorry to hear this news coming less than a week after the first episode of Camp Camp's season 5 aired.

[classicdrogn]

Is it really good news if they're going to keep making RWBY at this point?

[Labster]

Oh wow, taking the most popular product off a service makes it lose money?  Who would have thought?

I'm pretty sure RWBY will continue.  They're talking about wanting to sell the rights, which means they think it has value. Basically they discovered that if they take the most popular products and resell them elsewhere, they can make more money while losing a whole bunch of stuff... well, I never bothered to watch it.  RvB, Gen:Lock, and RWBY are the only things worth money there, really.  And apparently some of the podcasts. RTX is a definite casualty, though.

It's kind of funny, 100 years of Hollywood and the accountants say they've never turned a profit yet, which is how they make so much money.

[Matrix Dragon]

With the site shutdown confirmed for May 15th, RT fans have been busy.

https://archiveofpimps.com/

Pretty much EVERYTHING RT's ever made. The things that aren't there yet are confirmed to have been archived and will go up.

[Mamorien]

ANN News Flash: Viz Media Acquires RWBY Series, Will Explore Production of New Chapters

Viz Media announced during its panel at Anime Expo on Friday that it has acquired the RWBY series following Rooster Teeth shutting down. Viz Media owns the rights for future distribution, production, licensing, and consumer products. The company is exploring the production of new chapters in the series.

The YouTube thumbnail for the announcement shows Kerry Shawcross and Barbara Dunkelman as participants, the latter rocking an outfit more or less in Yang's colors if not her exact style. (Would that be considered Remnantbounding?)