Do you watch the fantastic web series The Guild? Well I’ve got some great news for you: sponsors Microsoft and Sprint have picked up The Guild for a fifth season! In case you’re living inside a bubble, the long-running web series follows the on- and off-line lives of a group of MMORPG gamers. The wildly colorful characters and the laugh-out-loud words they speak to one another were imagined by co-creator and writer Felicia Day. Says Day to GigaOm, “We’re lucky that we have such an eager fanbase and that our numbers have stayed so high. Partnering with Xbox increased our fanbase in a real way–it introduced us to millions of people who never would have seen it before.” She adds, “Every season has had a different style and sensibility. That has been on purpose. We’re always exploring different aspects of our characters. This season will be no different!”

After last season’s cliffhanger of an ending, it’s expected that Day will take the gang to a convention for the game they play. According to co-creator Kim Evey, cosplayers may or may not be involved. Director Sean Becker, confirmed to helm season 5, adds to the conversation. “The convention based story line will allow us to take these characters further out into the unknown (meaning away from their computers), which will be new to us as well on the production side,” he told Tubefilter. “I look forward to personally exploring this new environment as well as seeing the characters interact in it. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and by fun I mean extremely hard work.”

If you aren’t caught up on all the seasons, run–don’t walk–to portals like Xbox Live, MSN Video and the Zune Marketplace to watch them. I can confidently say that The Guild is bar none the greatest web series of all time. And I’m not just saying that because I contributed to the production of season 4. It’s smart, funny, witty, and best of all it’s a feel-good comedy that always leaves you wanting for more. Expect season 5 to hit the ‘Net this summer. But will season 5 be the last? According to Day, don’t even think about. “For the end of this season, I have an idea for what I want to do and it’s definitely not closing a door. I’m definitely not planning to make Season 5 the final one. The characters are a vast well. I can’t stop coming up with ideas for them.”

[Via GigaOm; Tubefilter]