Sony Announces Partnership With Discord

Sony has made a minority investment in Discord, and entered into a new partnership with the communication service. Sony Interactive Entertainment President & CEO Jim Ryan announced the news in a blog post earlier today.

“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. It’s in this spirit that we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Discord, the communication service popularized by gamers and used by more than 140 million people every month around the world.”

With this new partnership, Sony and Discord plan to integrate the service into PlayStation Network “early next year.” While no specific details were mentioned, the overall goal is to bring both services together in a way that makes it easier for players to communicate and get together with their friends and other groups of people they like to game with.

Sony partnering with Discord is a surprising move considering it wasn’t too long ago that Microsoft was looking to acquire Discord. Those talks ended a little over a week ago, with Discord reportedly considering a public listing for their company. It’s possible that this new collaboration with Sony played a part in their decision to conclude talks with Microsoft.

Just like I said when the Microsoft acquisition was a possibility, there’s great potential for a partnership like this. Having Discord features directly integrated with PlayStation Network would be a major boon for gamers who may want to play games with members of their Discord communities. When you look at the gaming landscape and the increasing amount of games that are featuring cross-play, having Discord chat potentially available to use directly on the PS5 or squadding up with community members with the help of a Discord option would make gaming with friends much easier.

Of course, we won’t know any of the specifics as to how Sony and Discord plan to integrate the service until we get closer to the actual launch date some time next year.