If Rooster Teeth was the biggest pop culture phenomenon from Austin that no Austinites knew about, RTX was the biggest event that locals overlooked. The annual convention drew tens of thousands of fans of the nerd-friendly streaming studio to Austin for what felt like a family gathering: but the family will gather no more.
In an email to Rooster Teeth fans yesterday, RT general manager Jordan Levin made the announcement that the event would not be happening in 2024.
He added that “we have every intention of resuming RTX in the future and bringing everyone back together.” However, with the current plan being for its home at Austin Convention Center to be closed for reconstruction from 2025 to 2029, there’s a big question as to where and when it will return, and what it will look like if and when it does.
Levin was brutally frank about the reason for the cancellation: that RTX “has never been profitable for us,” and while the convention has expanded, “so have the time commitment, costs, and losses. So, we are going to take some time off to evaluate RTX and decide the best way to move forward with a fresh approach that can make it one hell of a community event again.”
With those massive time demands off the shoulders of the RT team, Levin said that the plan is now to concentrate on its subscription platform, Rooster Teeth FIRST. He made it clear that increasing the number of subscribers would be the only way to ensure the volume of content they hope to provide. “Like the first ten years of the company, prior to its acquisition, your support, or lack of support, will ultimately determine what we can and cannot do.”
RTX started in 2011 as a planned special tour of the offices for some of Rooster Teeth’s biggest fans. However, the organizers were expecting 200 people at most. Instead, in an underestimate that somehow mimicked the opening year of South by Southwest, that inaugural RTX sold 600 tickets. The following year the studio moved to the convention center, and so began years of expansion, with crowds reaching 62,000 fans over a three-day weekend in 2017. Programming grew to include live concerts, an animation festival, and even international spin-offs, with RTX Australia (2016-18) and RTX London (2017-18).
However, the momentum faltered in 2020 when Rooster Teeth first delayed, then canceled the in-person event due to the pandemic. The virtual RTX at Home stood in for two years until the return to in-person programming in 2022. Yet attendance seemed to falter and was notably reduced by 2023.
The announcement comes at the end of challenging year for Rooster Teeth. First, the studio announced that its signature series, RWBY, would be premiering on anime streamer Crunchyroll, instead of FIRST. Then, at RTX 2023, the team behind the series confirmed that volume 10 hadn’t (and still hasn’t) been greenlit, leaving the show on a cliffhanger. This seemed all the more surprising, considering the release of the second part of their crossover movies with DC Comics’ Justice League, Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen.
Similarly mixed news came with the announcement of the return of the show that built the company, Halo-based machinima Red vs. Blue, for its 20th anniversary, with show creator/studio founder Burnie Burns returning after leaving the company in 2020. However, this final run will also be the last, with Burns seemingly being brought back to power the program down once and for all.Not that Rooster Teeth is wrapping up: The studio has confirmed the return of animated comedy Camp Camp, while the D&D podcast Tales From the Stinky Dragon has become a success in its own right. However, between Levin’s statement, and a constant, low thrum from the rumor mill about mercurial parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, the latest announcement may cause only greater concern about the studio’s future.
This article appears in December 15 • 2023.