Rooster Teeth Productions is an entertainment company located in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2005 by CEO Burnie Burns, and Co-Founders Geoffrey Ramsay and Matt Hullum, the company aimed to bring a variety of entertainment to the world. Throughout the company’s runtime, they would produce shows such as RWBY and Red vs Blue, and have a gaming branch titled Achievement Hunter. Indeed, this once small entertainment business quickly grew far past its expected quota. But, oh, how the mighty have fallen. After many years facing success, 2020 would soon be the year that Rooster Teeth began to rapidly decline from fame to lame.
Ryan Haywood of Achievement Hunter accused of inappropriate contact with underage fans, severe crunch time for projects, harassment in the workplace, and plagiarizm are just some of the many controversies facing the company to this day. However, despite these issues, Rooster Teeth continued to grow. Around 2014, Fullscreen bought Rooster Teeth for an undisclosed amount, in order to expand the brand. However, it wouldnt be until later that year that Warner Discovery bought the company under AT&T’s ownership for another undisclosed amount. The idea with Warner was to help the entertainment company expand and improve its tool and resource pool against other competitors such as Dreamworks.
Although this helped the company, the corresponding community began to see signs that they were obviously becoming more ‘corporate’, straying from their original goals.
Rooster Teeth; Business or Restraunt?
Rooster Teeth logo old vs new. Image from boards.sportslogos.net
On April 1st, Rooster Teeth Productions celebrated their 20th Anniversary. In addition to this, they introduced a brand new logo and the tagline ‘Just Playing’. Following the launch of the new logo, the community expressed their disinterest toward this decision. For example, commenters on Reddit stated that the logo somewhat resembled that of Red Rooster (An Australian fast-food chain). Others have even voiced their confusion, questioning if they should either watch videos, or order fried chicken.
Furthermore, the new logo and name are separate from each other as opposed to being side-by-side. Not only is the separation an issue, but the color scheme of red and blue are far too clashing and an eyesore. Couple this with their consistently falling reputation, and Rooster Teeth appears more corporate than anything.
Policy Or Piracy?
Much like any other company, Rooster Teeth always has to ensure that their consumers follow a specific guideline in order to ensure fair and simple use of their website. This includes fanart, discussions and posts made by various users. With the addition of sharing these posts, fans and communities come together in order to share their love for the company and its IP’s. However, in a recent update to their Support Page, RT seemed to have turned their community against them yet again.
In a recent update, the company stated that any and all ‘Fan Project’ posts made on their website involving any of their IP’s (RWBY, Red vs Blue, etc.) would be considered by the company as ‘Free Use’. This means that- should the IP Fan Project be for nonprofit- any person(s), including the company themselves, have full authority to use their project without crediting the original creator. Considering this, the new logo, and the decline in popularity from past controversy, it would seem the once proud entertainment company has lost its grip with its community overall.
But tell us what you think in the comments below. We want to know what your thoughts are on where you think Rooster Teeth currently stands. Also, be sure to check out our Facebook page, as we keep our viewers up-to-date on the latest happenings. As always, Stay Geeky!
