Microsoft Corp. i Discord Inc. maintains a strong influence among video game fans. Like now will hold talks for a possible $ 10 billion acquisition, an agreement would join two companies to pursue audiences far beyond the players.
Jason Citron i Stan Vishnevskiy, a programmer and businessman, founded San Francisco-based Discord in 2015 as a platform for chatting while playing video games together. The free service offers voice, video, and text, as well as features suitable for players, including the ability for users to broadcast the name of the game they are playing.
The app became popular a few years ago and rose alongside big multiplayer hits like Epic Games Inc.’s Fortnite. It also has a more sinister side to its history, as it has been used as a meeting place White nationalists will organize the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
Since then, the company has made efforts to clean up its site and make it more inclusive. Last year was a “crucial year for Discord, new chief financial officer Tomasz Marcinkowski said in a blog post earlier this month. During the pandemic, with people trapped at home and playing more video games than ever before and also looking for ways to socialize safely, Discord became a hub for communities interested in the Black Lives Matter movement, homework help, book clubs and more. a “place to talk “.
Discord’s service has long attracted all sorts of famous and influential social media players. There was that time three years ago when Fortnite’s biggest player, Ninja, helped instruct hip-hop legend Drake to set up his Discord account. More recently, there was WallStreetBets. The coalition of investors known for increasing GameStop shares since its posting on Reddit also had a server on Discord and banned earlier this year for not doing enough to curb hate speech.
The site now claims more than 140 million monthly users and grossed $ 100 million last year. Discord doubled its rating last December to $ 7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to Crunchbase, it has raised a total of about $ 480 million from investors, including Greenoaks Capital.
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At Discord, everyone can create their own community or server, which can range in size from less than ten people to hundreds of thousands. The average user may belong to a private Discord server that they only use to hang out with their friends and other public servers dedicated to discussing their favorite movie or sports team.
For Microsoft, these diverse communities may be Discord’s main selling point. The software giant, which last year tried to buy the social networking app TikTok and held talks with it acquire Pinterest Inc., has been buying assets that would provide access to thriving user communities, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. The Xbox console maker has recently reclaimed numerous video game companies, including publisher ZeniMax Media Inc. last fall for $ 7.5 billion. Microsoft may try to integrate Discord with Xbox Game Pass, its Netflix-like subscription service for video games.
One of the keys to Discord’s popularity is the lack of commercials. Instead of filling channels with intrusive ads, such as other social networking services, such as Twitter Inc., Discord makes money with a subscription service called Nitro. For $ 10 a month, members can customize tags next to their usernames, upload larger files, and stream content with superior video quality.
Discord has also become a useful way for video game companies to directly promote products and encourage communities. The company will verify the servers based on popular video games, giving them a seal of authenticity. Some game developers participate in their Discord channels, allowing fans to interact directly with the people behind their favorite titles.
The official Discord community for the success of the game Among us, for example, there are more than 413,000 users. Us community director Victoria Tran described her as “quite chaotic, but very funny.” He said people use the server not only to talk about the game and find people to play with, but to have broader conversations about their lives and interests.
The server “is a fun way to connect directly with our players, even if it’s not necessarily game-related,” Tran said. He added that video game servers can also be a place where players can report bugs and offer suggestions directly to game creators. “Discord communities are just a great way to get feedback that you might not have been able to get otherwise,” he said.
Discord can also be useful for smaller games that may not be within our reach, but that want to provide a place for fans to chat, game developers say.
“We really just wanted to build a discreet community that was nice to hang out with,” he said Megan Fox, founder of the independent game development studio Glass Bottom Games. His first game, Skatebird, is about birds on skateboards. It has a Discord community of about 900 users that Fox said uses primarily the server to talk about “birds or skateboards.” He said the studio also has a channel aimed exclusively at users to “share your kickflip attempt.” Many Discord servers rely on humor and internal jokes, which is part of the appeal.
The news of a possible deal has inspired mixed reactions in the video game community. “If Discord is sold, Microsoft may be one of the safest places to go without experiencing major changes,” he said. Rod Breslau, sports and games consultant who works with companies such as Sony Music Entertainment. Microsoft has taken a hands-on approach with recent acquisitions, such as LinkedIn and GitHub, he said.
But not all players have been thrilled with the prospect. Twitter was full of people on Tuesday asking Discord not to sell. Some Discord channels were also filled with negative reactions to the idea of consolidating the video game industry.
“Players mostly have a whiplash from several previous Microsoft complaints,” Wroclaw said, “and who really wants one of the big corporate gentlemen to continue to swallow parts of the industry?”
Maybe he won’t get to that. The discord is likely to be made public rather than the sale itself, said one person familiar with the discussions.
– With the assistance of Dina Bass and Katie Roof