January isn't over yet, and 2022 has been stuffed with major video game industry news. After Take-Two Interactive acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft announced its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Just today that's been followed up by the New York Times buying break-out success Wordle for "low seven figures," as well as Sony acquiring Destiny 2 developer Bungie. The sale of Bungie may pale in comparison to Activision Blizzard, going for $3.6 billion, but it's also not the only PlayStation news circulating.

Discord confirmed it is beginning to roll out connectivity with PlayStation Network this afternoon. A major partnership between PlayStation and Discord, one of the biggest instant messaging and community building platforms online right now, was first announced in May 2021. Features included in this initial roll out aren't extensive, but combined with Sony's Bungie acquisition it points to the giant console manufacturer consolidating its idea for what the future will look like.

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Sony's Discord Integration Makes Playing Together Easier

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Discord's ubiquitous status connecting friend groups and larger communities has resulted in multiple deals allowing users to attach accounts. There were 10 prior to PlayStation Network: Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net, Facebook, GitHub, Reddit, Spotify, Steam, Twitch, Twitter, Xbox, and YouTube. PlayStation's integration works the same way; users go to the "Connections" setting and authorize their PlayStation Network account, at which point they can choose to display information on their profile or specifically as the status that appears underneath one's Discord name.

Once that integration is complete, anytime users boot up a game on their PlayStation 4 or 5 it will be displayed for friends and members of various servers. Using Discord with an Xbox or Steam account works much the same way, though people can also choose to display their PlayStation Network online ID, meaning others can add them as friends or join multiplayer games from a chatroom. In Discord's official announcement blog post it says, "We’re excited to continue our partnership with PlayStation and explore how we can collectively create great shared experiences," so it will be interesting to see if more features follow down the line.

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PlayStation May Be Committing to Cross-Play

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Another point of note in Discord's blog post is that integrating one's PlayStation Network account will let friends know if the user is on a game that supports cross-play. PlayStation has expressed interest in adding more cross-play games, and this makes sense. Much of the brand's acclaim has come from its breadth of single-player AAA experiences from studios like Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Santa Monica Studio. Meanwhile, its chief competition Microsoft has been delving deeper into community building and accessibility.

Xbox Game Pass has been a huge success for Microsoft. It connects PC and console gamers with a nigh-unbeatable library of AAA releases and assorted indie games, many of which have agreements to release day one. Innovations like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and award-winning accessibility options in Xbox-exclusive games like Forza Horizon 5 have also expanded its net (though in this regard, PlayStation games like The Last of Us 2 have also received praise). Now that it has this platform, Microsoft is pushing for more exclusives from developers like Bethesda, even if it's been known to share experiences such as Minecraft with the wider industry.

PlayStation's Discord integration and the Bungie acquisition happening on the same day may not be as much a coincidence as it seems. While Microsoft shores up its exclusive draws, putting stock into a game like Destiny 2 shows Sony committing to cross-play aspirations - supported by community platforms like Discord. Destiny 2 only released cross-play with Season of the Lost in August 2021, but that makes it a huge get. Halo Infinite may be a bestseller for Xbox, but its performance on sites like Twitch suggests it's not as huge a community driven experience. Destiny 2 certainly is, and the shooter could lead PlayStation down a path less reliant on single-player blockbusters.

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