Sony has made a minority investment in Discord, following reports last month that the chat company was weighing its options for a buyout. Microsoft and Epic Games were among the companies interested in a possible buyout before Discord reportedly halted the process in order to consider going public.
According to the announcement by Sony president Jim Ryan, the minority investment will result in Discord being integrated into the PlayStation Network. “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,” Ryan wrote.
Sony’s is a minority stake and the amount hasn’t been disclosed, but it does hint that Discord may launch an initial public offering sooner rather than later. Microsoft’s offer to purchase Discord was reportedly higher than $10 billion—even more than the $7.5 billion it paid for Bethesda. It makes sense, because although Discord hasn’t been profitable, it is the go-to communication service for gamers on PC.
It’s also worth noting that the integration with the PlayStation Network won’t likely affect the current PC Discord experience: Xbox has had a small integration for a while now, with users able to link their Xbox and Discord accounts in order to share friends lists across the platforms. Whether the PSN integration will go further than that is unclear: Ryan hasn’t provided any further details.
As of December, Discord had 140 million active users per month, and had a valuation of $7 billion in November.