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Sony is planning to integrate Discord into PlayStation Network starting in early 2022. In a blog post today, Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan explained that this connection will enable some form of communication between users on PSN and the Discord app on PC and mobile.
“Together, our teams are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network,” reads Ryan’s statement. “Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together.”
Discord already integrated its services into Microsoft’s Xbox, but the companies limited that to player presence. So you can see what someone is playing on Xbox through Discord, but they cannot directly communicate through Xbox Live. Sony is planning to go beyond that.
As part of this deal, Sony is also making an investment in Discord. But the companies did not disclose the exact amount.
“To bring these experiences to life for our players, Sony Interactive Entertainment has made a minority investment as part of Discord’s Series H round,” writes Ryan. “From our very first conversation with [Discord] cofounders 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.”
Discord has more than 140 million people using it every month. That makes it the go-to solution for gamers looking to connect with one another.
That makes the Sony deal important because Discord could solve a problem with cross-platform communication as more games enable people on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile to play with one another.
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