Animation studio Rooster Teeth Productions has shifted its licensing business to a four-person staff after previously being represented by its toy licensee Jazwares.

The move also comes as Rooster Teeth readies a new, eight-episode, 22-minute “gen:Lock” series for release in early 2019 along with a licensing program that is expected to start with apparel and expand to include toys (action figures) the following year, says Rooster Teeth’s Geoff Yetter.

“Jazwares has been tremendous and their product is phenomenal but as we start to expand RWBY and other properties we want to have better control over it and find the partners that we want and get more product out there,” says Vetter.  “We want to have 10 different versions of the RWBY toy, not just the one or two that Jazwares could provide.”

Jazwares plans to work with Rooster Teeth for “many years to come,” says Jazwares’ Sam Ferguson. Yet the companies are “tweaking some of the ways we work together,” including Rooster Teeth reaching licensees “more directly,” says Ferguson.

The new series comes as Rooster Teeth shifts new content from YouTube to www.roosterteeth.com for many of the same reasons it made the change in licensing. Rooster Teeth has 9.5 million YouTube subscribers; it will continue to make its back catalog content available on YouTube, but new series will only be available on the company’s web site.

“Those types of exclusive deals made absolute sense because when we started out, we weren’t able to reach as many people ourselves,” says Rooster Teeth’s Gary Haddock, whose company launched RWBY on YouTube in 2013.

Yet with the company having introduced its own $4.99 monthly service that gives subscribers a one-week exclusive on new content and a discount in the company’s online store, an internally-operated service made more sense, says Haddock.

Contacts:

Rooster Teeth Productions, Geoff Yetter, Licensing Mgr., 940-353-7144, geoff.yetter@roosterteeth.com

Jazwares, Sam Ferguson, VP Global Licensing, +44 20 359 980270, sfergson@jazwares.com