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Microsoft is in exclusive talks to buy Discord for the princely sum of $ 10 billion. That’s $ 2.5 billion more than he recently paid to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda. However, I can’t help but think that Sony should be trying to buy Discord, not Microsoft.
While Microsoft is unlikely to have the capital available, buying Discord would help Sony solve one of the PS5’s most disappointing aspects: its lackluster voice chat.
Objectively speaking, voice chat on PS5 doesn’t compare too favorably to Xbox. You can argue until you’re blue in the face that it’s “just as good”, but you’d be wrong. Anyone who switches between the two platforms on a regular basis can attest that PlayStation’s offering falls short of Microsoft’s implementation. But there is a good reason for this.
It’s easy to forget that Microsoft first introduced voice chat on the original Xbox in 2002. It then took voice chat even further by introducing Party Chat (or inter-game chat) to the game. Xbox 360 era in 2008 and has continued to tweak ever since (you can now adjust the individual audio level for each group member now, for example). Microsoft has since invested heavily in its online services, which has been helped by users who pay to play online. He therefore had the time and the resources to refine his offer.
Sony, meanwhile, has taken a different approach to online chat. Online was free on PS3, but Party Chat never materialized on Sony’s platform due to restrictions with console memory. PlayStation fans had to wait for the PS4 for Party Chat to finally make an appearance on console, which coincided with the company making PlayStation Plus mandatory for online play.
Skype your life
While this is certainly a must-have addition to PlayStation’s suite of online services, Microsoft has gone one step further to dramatically improve voice chat on Xbox One. The Redmond-based company bought Skype in 2011 for $ 8.5 billion and quickly implemented voice platform technology into Xbox One to dramatically improve audio quality.
The difference in audio quality from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One was stark, and that’s why I think Sony could benefit tremendously from acquiring Discord. It’s an established platform that excels in instant messaging, voice chat, and video, and its technology would do wonders for PlayStation users. This would help PlayStation close the aforementioned development gap with the Xbox almost instantly.
Nitro powered
If Sony owned Discord, it could immediately supercharge its current online offering by incorporating the same technology that powers Discord so successfully. The audio quality could be improved, as well as the stability; his messaging system could finally work as expected, instead of being cumbersome and inconsistent; and it could even pave the way for video chat on PlayStation, which rose to prominence during the pandemic. A lot of people have bought the new PS5 camera after all, but there’s not much you can do with it as it is.
Discord’s voice chat has a number of desirable features that would benefit PlayStation users, such as echo cancellation, noise reduction, and automatic gain control options. Voice chat also doesn’t require constant invitations to start conversations – just join an always-open voice channel and get in and out as you wish. Considering how difficult it is to create a Party Chat on PS5 right now, that would be a blessing in itself.
Discord would also give Sony access to hundreds of communities to engage with immediately, the majority of which are gaming-focused. Sony’s developer teams could each have official Discord channels for gamers to congregate in, and this would provide a much more efficient platform for delivering news and updates than using Activity Cards and the home screen of the PS5.
With Sony set to remove PlayStation Communities from PS4, which is essentially a tribute to the many channels and servers on Discord where communities thrive, Sony wouldn’t need to create another feature that essentially lives and dies on a platform. closed. Making it accessible through Discord would require less maintenance and increase its chances of being used much more.
But alas, it looks like Microsoft is already one step ahead of its closest competitor, mainly because it has the financial clout to do so. But also because Microsoft is all too aware that when you buy a business, you don’t just own a successful business and brand – you are now able to use the tools, technology, and people who have. helped make these businesses so successful in the beginning place.
Money talks
In all fairness, it makes sense that Microsoft is attacking Discord so heavily. Xbox and PC are now closely aligned thanks to Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox director Phil Spencer has suggested that Microsoft would be open to “crosstalk” between Xbox Party Chat and Discord for some time. You would like to think that Microsoft would make sure that this quickly becomes a reality and also use Discord to become a meeting place for the Xbox community, something its failed streaming service Mixer has never been able to accomplish.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Discord Nitro, the paid tier of the communication app that gives users an enhanced experience, integrated as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This would undoubtedly encourage more PC users to sign up for Xbox Game Pass as well and introduce Discord to more Xbox users as well. Microsoft has already offered three months of Discord Nitro to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers as part of its “Perks” program, so the precedent is there.
Ok, maybe it’s good if Microsoft buys Discord after all… Sorry, Sony.
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