PlayStation has announced a minority investment into popular communication service, Discord.
This announcement comes just weeks after Discord halted talks with Microsoft, who were preparing a bid of over $10 billion for a complete takeover of the company. Discord had decided to remain independent, though stated they would be open to resuming negotiations further down the line. Sony plans to integrate the service on PlayStation at the beginning of next year.
In a short blog post by PlayStation President and CEO, Jim Ryan announced the partnership which will serve to bring players togethers. He states:
“Empowering players to create communities and enjoy shared gaming experiences is at the heart of what we do, so we are beyond excited to start this journey with one of the world’s most popular communication services.”
With over 140 million monthly users, Discord has rapidly risen as one of the top communication platforms in the world and has become synonymous with the gaming community. PlayStation and Discord “are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network.”
Although not specific details on how Discord will integrate within the PlayStation ecosystem, this partnership may have huge implications on the future of the way gamers can connect. Primarily, this partnership could further enhance how players from different platforms can connect, particularly while playing games that support cross-play. What could be particularly interesting would be if the $10 billion negotiations between Microsoft and Discord continued and are ultimately agreed upon. This could lead to a wonderful synergy in communication possibilities between PlayStation, Xbox, PC and mobile players.
We have also seen during these early months of the PlayStation 5’s lifespan that Sony has been looking to emphasise community lead party chat systems by reconfiguring the way PlayStation parties in a way that has attempted to emulate Discord. The partnership with Discord suggests that PlayStation’s minority stake is being used to reinvigorate the PlayStation communication systems.
More information about how this partnership will evolve, and how it will impact PlayStation users, will be revealed in the coming months.
Words by Max Sunnar
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.