Youtube is down right now so I can't watch the video.
While posting the series on Youtube would have undoubtedly given the show far, far more exposure, I think it's unreasonable to assume that it would attain RWBY levels of success. RWBY was a Black Swan and you can't really replicate Black Swans... they're called that for a reason. RWBY is also as popular as it is now after having been built up for... what? 7 years? I think expecting a new show to attain anywhere near the same viewership as RWBY would be ridiculous.
As I understand it, Rooster Teeth was deep in financial trouble before Gen:Lock. It seems to me that Gen:Lock (not putting it up on Youtube, ridiculous expectations) isn't so much the problem as it is a symptom of mismanagement.
I thought the expression Black Swan referred to a disaster that seems unforeseeable beforehand but obvious in hindsight. Have I been using that expression wrong?
Regardless, I get your point. However, I think in the story of RWBY's "Success" it is easy to underestimate just how much it was coasting off the engine of RT from the beginning, and how RT's floundering has been very much a story of a company forgetting (or actively hacking away at) it's own roots.
Rooster Teeth was the "haha they say the funny fuck word in the video game" company, their success and backing and millions of dollars came on the wave of being edgy clowns that named their company "Cock Bite". They basically tried to "push" a train that was drastically divergent from their core (vapid, low intensity anime) using the engine of "Hahaha cock balls shit video game show funny" in the back. Like if the makers of South Park decided funnel their profits from South Park into an unrelated fashion line or something. Rooster Teeth wasnt making RWBY for Rooster Teeth fans, they were just hoping Rooster Teeth fans would watch it enough, long enough for it to find it's "real" audience.
To a lesser extent this was also the Monty Oum phenomenon, Monty had a big following online that he could "coast" off of, people kept waiting for RWBY to turn into Dead Fantasy, and waiting, and waiting, but in the end the intention was never to provide that level of direction, he was never going to do one of those fight scenes again in his life, the idea was just to keep you on the hook to keep those numbers up until the new audience that never wanted DF was settled into place.
This is why "Penis Bite Joke incorporated" has tried to launch what,
three or
four children's shows so far? And yes, I include RWBY, it's markedly less intense than your average Disney Renaissance movie and someone saying "Bitch" once or twice doesn't change that.
They're trying to
use their momentum from their previous audience to fuel projects to court the audience they
want. The main problem is that they were competitive (and lucky) as edgy clowns, but they're not competitive in the market they want, and the audience they want is already much
smaller than they ever realized.