By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The Guild, the MMORPG-themed web series spearheaded by geek goddess Felicia Day, is gearing up for its second season. However, rather than new episodes airing on YouTube, they will be showing up exclusively on XBox Live, Zune, and MSN Video. That’s right, they’re teaming up with Microsoft, which is part of the company’s new strategy to reach across a gaming console, portable media player, and Internet portal for maximum ad revenue. In this case, the twelve-episode run of the new season is being sponsored by Sprint.

The second season of The Guild premiered today on XBox’s new channel, Independent Video, which is devoted to original content. It will eventually offer other gaming-related shows like Red vs. Blue.

Apparently this sort of deal has been long coming, since Day has been approached by a variety of different media outlets trying to get their hands on The Guild. However, she insisted upon retaining all of the intellectual property rights to the series. This seems like a smart move; they get the licensing fees and exposure from Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t get any piece of future revenue if the show should graduate to TV or film.

The first episode of the new season is available here on MSN for those like me who don’t have an XBox.