Sony announced a partnership with Discord and it appears that the online chat service could be integrated into the PlayStation Network by early next year. Details on what exactly that will look like are slim. President and CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, posted a short statement on the company’s blog site.
“Together, our teams are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network,” reads the announcement. “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.”
This partnership may play a key role in assisting cross-platform communication. More and more games are allowing gamers on different consoles to play with one another; including MLB The Show 21 which launched on Xbox consoles for the very first time this year.
As part of this deal, Sony is also investing in Discord. However, an exact figure hasn’t been disclosed. Discord has become the go-to communication service for gamers looking to connect with each other through user-created channels for text, voice, and video chats. It sports 140 million active monthly users.
“Empowering players to create communities and enjoy shared gaming experiences is at the heart of what we do,” Ryan continued. “So we are beyond excited to start this journey with one of the world’s most popular communication services.”
Discord was reportedly in talks with Microsoft as part of a $10 billion acquisition deal earlier this year. However, those conversations appear to have cooled. More info on where Sony and Discord go from here should be arriving in the coming months.