Rooster Teeth enters games publishing

The media company behind Red vs Blue has launched its own indie game publishing division.

Rooster Teeth Games has already developed and published its own game - RWBY: Grimm Eclipse- on Steam, Xbox One and PS4. But now it is looking to sign titles from independent developers. Its first game is Battlesloths 2025: The Great Pizza War from Invisible Collective. The multiple twin-stick shooter is scheduled to arrive in Spring 2017.

Rooster Teeth join a raft of companies that now compete in the indie publishing space. This new breed of games publisher acts more like a service business than your typical EA or Activision, and helps fund, market and distribute titles for smaller studios that are looking to reach a larger audience on congested digital marketplaces. Companies such as Devolver Digital, Team17, KISS, Rising Star, Curve, Sold Out, PlayStack, 505 Games, Soedesco, Badland, Wargaming, Green Man Gaming, Raw Fury, Wired Productions, Ripstone, Versus Evil and Starbreeze offer similar services. Meanwhile, even big publishing houses have launched their own initiatives, including Square Enix, EA, Sega, GameStop, Take-Two and Activision.

Rooster Teeth's USP is its media network. The firm believes it can help sell games the 30m subscribers it has on YouTube.

"Rooster Teeth services the community of people who grew up on game consoles instead of cable boxes," said director Michael Hadwin. "With Rooster Teeth Games, we will bring a wide array of engaging and entertaining video games on all platforms to this community, and in turn introduce the indie developer to this thriving demographic."

He continues: "We invite the aspiring, stellar, creative indie developers around the world to contact Rooster Teeth Games and pitch their best content and games to us," said Hadwin. "We are eager to share access to the vast potential audiences within the Rooster Teeth community, and to publish and deliver new and exciting content to gamers worldwide, starting with Battlesloths."