3 hours ago
4
Nearly a year after news of Rooster Teeth’s demise, company founder Burnie Burns announced Wednesday that he’s acquired the brand, marking “a new chapter for Rooster Teeth as it returns to the hands of its original creator.”
Burns’ company Box Canyon Productions will launch a new slate of productions under the Rooster Teeth brand in 2025, according to a news release, including “renewed production of some of the platform’s classic shows.” Burns and Box Canyon did not announce which shows it will focus on, but it sounds like a revival of, say, Red vs. Blue is not off the table. That longtime popular machinima series ostensibly ended last year with Red vs. Blue: Restoration, a movie-length sendoff for the franchise. Prior to the release of Restoration, Rooster Teeth founders Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Gus Sorola, and Burns reunited for “one last epic Halo gaming session.”
“I am excited at the challenge of bringing Rooster Teeth back to its roots,” said Burns in a statement. “The heart of this brand has always been its fans, and I look forward to writing a new chapter together.” Burns said his plans for Rooster Teeth will “focus on innovation, community engagement, and the spirit of creativity that first defined its success.”
In an episode of Burnie and Ashley Burns’ podcast Morning Somewhere, the former said that the acquisition of Rooster Teeth encompasses the brand, its various channels on YouTube, and its social media accounts. It does not include Rooster Teeth spinoff series like FunHaus and Achievement Hunter, nor does it include the RWBY intellectual property, which is owned by Viz Media.
The reborn Rooster Teeth currently consists of two employees. Burnie asked that fans refrain from pestering the company’s other founders to ask if they’re returning to Rooster Teeth, and promised to answer questions about the new company to subscribers of the Morning Somewhere Patreon this weekend. Burnie expanded somewhat on the company’s plans during the podcast, saying vaguely that the plan for 2025 is to “deshittify our little corner of the internet.”
Polygon has reached out to Burnie Burns for further comment and will update when he responds.
Rooster Teeth was founded in 2003, the same year it launched Red vs. Blue, a machinima-styled show that used Halo: Combat Evolved to tell a story of two groups of isolated, opposing armies dropped into a barren canyon. The show quickly became a hit, thanks to its parody of both wartime narratives and military video games.
The company branched out with shows like Achievement Unlocked, Let’s Play, and the hit anime web series RWBY. Fullscreen acquired Rooster Teeth in 2014, an acquisition that kicked off a string of mergers and restructurings that led to Rooster Teeth’s consolidation under AT&T. AT&T tried to sell Rooster Teeth in 2021, but failed to find a buyer, so it was included in the AT&T deal that merged WarnerMedia with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery. In March 2024, Rooster Teeth announced it would close.
English (US) ·