Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan announced a PlayStation and Discord partnership set to bring some Discord services to the PlayStation Network in the future. The news comes just weeks after Microsoft attempted to purchase Discord outright and was rebuffed.
Ryan shared few details on the new PlayStation and Discord partnership would entail, though mentioned it would “bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year [2022], allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together.”
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Jim Ryan Announces PlayStation and Discord Partnership
It’s a different relationship than what Microsoft was pursuing. Microsoft wanted to buy Discord, reportedly for $12 billion, where Sony has acquired a “minority stake” in Discord following the communication network’s Series H funding round in December 2020.
Series H is a later stage of capital building that startup companies often use to find interested partners who can help continue their growth.
Bloomberg said Discord wants to go public and won’t be seeking a buyout any time in the near future. In other words, don't expect PlayStation to put in an offer like Microsoft did.
Since Sony holds only a minority stake in the company, it’s unclear what other Discord and PlayStation connections we might see, though it’s a relationship Ryan wanted for a long time.
He said:
"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."
Whether we'll also see Discord chat integration added in the Xbox ecosystem remains uncertain.
[Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment]
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