Fans of the Web series The Guild got good news today when producers announced that its second season would begin appearing online today. Surprisingly though, the show will not continue in its old home, YouTube. Instead, The Guild, now sponsored by Microsoft and Sprint, will be shown on MSN Video. Fans can also download episodes to Xbox 360s or Zunes with the Xbox version available in HD.

The change in distribution channel marks a turnaround for the series, which originally financed itself mostly with fan contributions and volunteer efforts. The show became a viral success by the open availability of YouTube, which allowed fans to embed the videos easily in blogs and other online forums.

Kim Evey, co-producer of The Guild along with its star, Felicia Day, answered a few questions about the changes that come along with the sponsorship deal:

The Industry Standard: Do the Microsoft and Sprint deals change things at all? Will we be seeing Codex with a Zune or Zaboo blaming Sprint service for not calling his mother?

Evey: We do have some product placement now, with Microsoft and Sprint products. The thing about product placement though is that it actually works really well for a show like ours. We were already using some of the products, covering everything with black tape, that we're now able to show. But for our show, the characters' use of technology is organic to the plot. It's actually easier for us not to have to worry about obscuring the logos.

Will The Guild still be available on YouTube?

Perhaps after our initial run with Microsoft. We don't have definite plans in place yet. We're still swamped with finishing the actual production.

How do you feel this new distribution model will impact fans? Geeks are a zealous lot, and the guys at Diggnation got a lot of fan feedback about their Zune promotion. Do you think fans of The Guild will respond differently than Diggnation's?

Well, you definitely can't please everybody, but ultimately, this was the best deal for the show. We held out for a long, long time for something that would allow us to continue to deliver the same quality that the fans enjoyed in Season One. We have a lot of people who've been contributing their time and skill to the show for free and we wanted to pay them back and have the quality of the show get better and better, which we really think it has. The majority of our fans understand that there are many factors that contribute to such a decision but we really think we made the smart choice.

Fan reaction to the news has been mixed. Many are happy to see the series achieving the success of a sponsorship deal, but others are upset that the Microsoft-centric hosting limits viewers only to some type of Microsoft channel or hardware. Fan Tajah Nevermore remarks on the show's forums:

I'm certainly happy for you all, and understand how great the deal is - but it pretty much stinks for anyone who doesn't own an Xbox or do [Xbox Live]. In Web 2.0 nobody wants to be old news - and 4 weeks might as well be *never*. And *yes* I saw the live stream on MSN video availability but it's superfluous to YouTube and other social networking. Pretty much the deal puts Guild fans in Microsoft's pocket - at least until the DVDs come out.

Those of us with Xbox Live or Zunes can download the show for free. The HD version takes about 15 to 20 minutes to download over a cable modem, so those in a hurry may want to check it out online while they wait.