What the Sony Discord partnership means for gamers

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced a partnership with messaging platform Discord. The Sony Discord partnership combines the gamer-focused messaging service with Sony’s popular console.

In the process, SIE—which is in charge of research, development and sales of PlayStation hardware, software, content and network services—made a minority investment as part of Discord’s Series H round.

The plan is to connect the communication service of Discord with the social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network. This integration of Discord and PlayStation Network is expected to roll out on both console and mobile platforms starting in early 2022.

SIE aims to allow friends, groups, and communities to socialize, enjoy, and communicate more easily while playing games together.

This should be no problem considering that Discord was already popularized by gamers. It now has more than 140 million monthly users worldwide.

SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan look forward to the partnership, expressing confidence in the cooperation of both brands involved. (Read: PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita will not be shutting down)

“At PlayStation, we’re constantly looking for new ways to enable players around the world to connect with one another, form new friendships and communities, and share fun experiences and lasting memories,” the company executive said in an official blog post.

Ryan said that the Discord co-founders left him a good impression from the start.

“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,” he recalled.

“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.”

Ryan said that more information will be released in the coming months. PlayStation users are advised to tune in to SIE’s channels, as well as Discord for the latest updates.

Similarly, Microsoft announced in April 2018 that it would collaborate with Discord to connect gamers across Xbox Live to the communication service. Users have the option to link their Discord accounts to their Xbox accounts. Aside from messaging, gamers could see what their friends are playing on Xbox Live.

Prior to SIE’s investment, Microsoft was reportedly in talks to acquire Discord for more than $10 billion, according to insiders. A deal did not prosper, however, with Discord opting to remain independent.

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