After a rumored bid from Microsoft to acquire Discord, it seems the community creation platform is partnering with PlayStation. However, it's not an exclusivity partnership by any means, despite Sony making an undisclosed investment into Discord's efforts of integrating with PlayStation's network. While Sony now owns a minority stake in the company, the language seems to imply a similar situation to Discord's Microsoft partnership established back in 2018. For the last few years, Discord has had an enduring, albeit limited, integration with Xbox consoles. Based on what's been announced this week, Discord isn't going exclusive to Microsoft or Sony.
The benefits of a platform-agnostic Discord are pretty obvious: synergized voice chat, community engagement capability beyond PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, and other factors contributing to a more equal community experience in games. With more widespread adoption of crossplay across a variety of games, ranging from AAA to even smaller indie projects, the voice chat equivalent of crossplay is only going to make things more convenient for players. With Sony's partnership and 2022 integration plans, it's very possible Discord intends to integrate full cross-platform voice chat for PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which would be a huge win for all players if true.
Discord is Now Partnered with PlayStation and Xbox
Of course, earlier this year, Xbox hinted at just that functionality coming to Xbox. At least partially, anyway. Xbox's social media manager Josh Stein replied to a Discord tweet discussing the company's "hack week" and floating "experimental" feature ideas for official implementation. In response to what fans wanted to see added to Discord, Stein in particular replied requesting some kind of true Xbox integration between Xbox and Discord. Obviously this was both after the official partnership and integration back in 2018, as well as being a pretty blatant nod to potential future functionality. Discord-Xbox integration still remains limited in its current form.
However, this interaction is clearly hinting at some expansion of Discord's integration with Xbox, presumably with cross-platform voice chat. Partnering with PlayStation is clearly the next logical step in this equation. Discord has had third-party options like "Quarrel" for true cross-platform party chat, but other than it being an unofficial workaround, other options were often laggy or inconsistent. Offering a first-party Discord app that has cross-platform voice chat with Xbox, PC, and soon PlayStation as well, is exactly what gaming needs moving into the next generation. Players using smartphones or other devices simply to chat and play with friends may be no more.
Discord May Shepherd a More Platform-Agnostic Gaming Future
Cross-platform gaming, whether it's just between Xbox and PC, or as far removed as Xbox and PlayStation, is becoming far more common in multiplayer gaming. Obviously with Fortnite's worldwide phenomenon making the first major push towards a platform-agnostic future, numerous games have implemented crossplay since then, including major franchises like Call of Duty. Epic Games even ended up paying royalties to PlayStation, among other rumored terms, to enable crossplay for Fortnite initially. Now it seems Discord may be in a similar boat, something which undoubtedly lead to Sony's acquiring of a minor stake in the company with a new investment.
Discord still retains its independence in the wake of this partnership, presumably pursuant to the idea of remaining a pivotal middleman for cross-platform play and communication. Considering Discord passed on a rumored potential acquisition of $10 billion by Microsoft, along with the partnership with Sony and investment into integration, it only makes sense. Capitalizing on a dual partnership between both major console makers, Discord could potentially be positioning itself in a place that could facilitate even greater cross-pollination of console gaming communities. Full integration would mean PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S players could chat together, ideally.
It's not much less of a pipe dream than it was before 2021, but full cross-platform integration with Discord could certainly become a possibility in the future. Only thing that's really in the way is whether or not these companies will be willing to play ball with a partial community integration by way of Discord. Obviously Xbox Live and PSN would never join services together, but a third-party Discord offering could be the ideal bridge between consoles. Microsoft has oftentimes expressed positive sentiments towards platform-agnostic gaming, whereas Sony has routinely been averse to integration efforts. That being said, a third-party offering like Discord could be the key.