Sony recently announced that it’s partnering with Discord. The partnership will help to integrate an online chat service into the PlayStation Network to allow PlayStation users to communicate with each other from early next year. The electronics giant has invested in the app and holds a minority stake in the company.
Discord is a free service that allows gamers to chat over video, audio calls, and text messages since its launch in 2015. The company rose to popularity among players of popular gaming titles, including Fortnite, Among Us, and Minecraft. The Discord app is already available on the Xbox series and can be downloaded on PCs and smartphones. Discord claims a portfolio of over a hundred a million gamers each month, mainly on PC and mobile devices.
Gaming experts hope the partnership will enable gamers using different consoles and devices to interact easily. In a blog post, Sony’s president and chief executive, Jim Ryan, said they’re looking for new ways to enable players to connect with each other, form new friendships and communities to share experiences and memories. This will attract more players, including gamers who enjoy online bingo at the comfort of their homes through their PC or smartphones. If you are on the lookout for a great bonus you can check out the top 3 best bingo offers up for grabs right now.
Jim Ryan added that the goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting next year. That will allow friends, groups, and communities to hang out and communicate more easily while playing games together.
This partnership came in just two weeks after Discord rejected a $12 billion offer from Microsoft to buy the company. According to Bloomberg, the messaging platform turned down the deal from Microsoft to focus on a potential public listing in the future. The investment from Sony is part of a hundred million dollars Discord funding round.
As stated by a mobile gaming expert, Matthew Gribben, Microsoft, Sony’s only real rival in the console space, has potentially dropped the ball by letting Discord get away and be tightly integrated into the PlayStation ecosystem. He also reveals that the partnership between Discord and PlayStation demonstrates a fundamental acknowledgment by Sony of the value that the gamer and game-streaming community have.
This partnership comes as emails reveal Sony’s previous opposition to cross-play, which tech news site the Verge first reported. Gio Corsi, Sony’s senior director of developer relations at the time, wrote that cross-platform play was not a slam dunk, no matter the size of the title. He also stated that many companies were exploring the idea, and not a single one would explain how cross-console play would improve the PlayStation business.
The 2018 conversation is related to Sony blocking cross-play on Epic’s Fortnite, which it eventually allowed later that year. This partnership suggests that Sony supports cross-play where people using different devices, such as a computer and a console, can play the same game.
A senior games analyst at Ampere Analysis, Louise Shorthouse, says that this partnership will improve the user experience for the players. It will boost Sony’s reputation among social gamers, which has traditionally lagged due to its unwillingness to allow cross-play platform plays.