Despite Discord's recent conversations with tech giant Microsoft, it has been announced that the communication platform will be partnering with PlayStation and Sony. Discord's popularity has boomed during the pandemic, though it has been the main source of comms for gamers for a few years now. This new partnership will solidify its obvious lead in a communication platform in the gaming space, and aid PlayStation's comms tools which many find a little lacking.
It's quite a surprise to see the post from PlayStation announcing the partnership after Microsoft, not long ago, tried to lure Discord into its roster of platforms with $10 billion. If you asked us a month ago about which of the two major consoles a partnership was likely to occur with, most would have said Xbox hands down - but Jim Ryan, CEO and President of PlayStation, says that from the moment he met the founders of Discord, he's been inspired by their passion.
PlayStation has been rapidly expanding its assets to compete with Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft's acquisitions. PlayStation Plus Video Pass is just one of the ways we are going to see PlayStation expand in the future:
The blog post says that PlayStation and Discord are "already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network. Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together."
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To allow this partnership to happen, PlayStation, of course, had to lay some money down but right now it seems to be only a "minority investment as part of Discord's Series H round." Ryan goes on to talk about his admiration for the company and founders, saying "From our very first conversation with co-founders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, I was inspired by their lifelong love for gaming and our teams' shared passion to help bring friends and communities together in new ways. 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."
It seems that we'll be hearing more about this integration next year - it wouldn't be surprising if this partnership was explored a little at this year's E3. Next year will be when we see the effects of this friendship, however, and I can't wait for my PlayStation comms to be better.
Featured Image Credit: PlayStation / DiscordTopics: News