Sony Interactive Entertainment has partnered with and invested in popular online chat platform Discord.
SIE president Jim Ryan shared the news on May 3, where he revealed that the two companies are working to integrate Discord’s services into the PlayStation Network by 2022. As part of the deal, SIE has made a “minority investment” in Discord’s Series H funding round.
“Together, our teams are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network,” Ryan said. Although details of the partnership are sparse at this time, Ryan noted that the goal is to “bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year”.
Ryan said that he was “inspired” by Discord cofounders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy’s “lifelong love for gaming and our teams’ shared passion to help bring friends and communities together”, adding that more information will be revealed in the “coming months”.
Sony’s partnership with the popular online chat service comes just weeks after Discord halted acquisition talks with Microsoft last month. In March, Bloomberg reported that the tech giant, as well as Epic Games and Amazon, had been in talks to acquire the chat platform.
The potential acquisition would have been Microsoft’s second major acquisition in recent months, following the approval of its purchase of ZeniMax Media – the holding company which owns popular video game studios like Bethesda Softworks, id Software and Arkane Studios – in March.
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