Something to look forward to: It's not too common for text chat platforms to make their way to gaming consoles, but that's about to change. Sony CEO Jim Ryan today announced that the company will be partnering with Discord to "integrate" the social platform into the PlayStation ecosystem in early 2022.
That is big news for PlayStation gamers -- users of Sony's latest gaming consoles have been clamoring for Discord support for years, and soon, their prayers will finally be answered. Unfortunately, the partnership is still in its early stages, so details about the integration are limited.
First, to be clear, Sony isn't buying Discord or anything of the sort (for now) -- this integration is not the result of a merger or broader investment deal. Instead, Sony and Discord simply want to provide their mutual fans with a more convenient way to stay connected without leaving the PlayStation ecosystem.
Discord's 140 million users (give or take) will certainly benefit from this deal, but to what extent? We don't know which Discord features will be making their way to PlayStation, so it's difficult to say.
Will it be a full port? If so, how will PlayStation handle text chat? Using controller joysticks to manually (and slowly) select each letter would be incredibly frustrating. Would it instead be a limited port, with only Discord's voice chat features supported? Perhaps -- only time will tell.
Either way, we look forward to seeing how this collaboration pans out. Hopefully, Microsoft will reach a similar agreement with Discord soon. If they can't, the PlayStation 5 will have another significant advantage over its chief competitors; the Xbox Series S and X.
