Hey, big traditional broadcast TV networks, you paying attention? This is the way television rolls on teh intertoobz. Check this out: Felicia Day (swoon), creator of The Guild, has announced that they’ve partnered with Xbox Live, Microsoft, and Sprint in order to finance the last bit of shooting for the second season of their hilarious web-only show about a WoW guild. From The Guild’s blog, Felicia explains:
I don’t exaggerate when we say that we had DOZENS of offers for the show. But I was adamant that we be able to retain ownership of the show and have the creative freedom to keep the show close to its roots and to our fans. We started filming Season 2 on [Season 1] DVD proceeds and my own money, but in the middle of filming the first few episodes, Scott Nocas from Xbox Live approached us and they proved the perfect fit. They will be helping us reach out to new audience, as well as allowing the show, through the Microsoft network, to be seen by anyone across the globe who wants to: Still for free!
While I’m not the biggest Microsoft supporter in the world, as a show about gamers, for gamers, support from Xbox (the one product/service that M$ has consistently gotten right) is a no-brainer. As a result, The Guild will now be available on the Xbox Live network, at a higher frequency than the crew was able to manage before (weekly eps instead of monthly), and with subtitles in eight languages, and—as always—free as in beer. The new season goes live (no pun intended, I just don’t think it’s appropriate to say it ‘airs’) tomorrow. In the meantime, watch a trailer here. Congratulations to you and the rest of the cast and crew of The Guild, Felicia. Here’s to many more seasons!
Update: Hollywood Reporter has picked up on the news here, and offer a nice recap of things from the business-end of things.
