5 ms·

Discord would be crazy to not take this deal. They could go public, but they have no clear monetization path to ever reach that valuation. For Microsoft, howev

Discord would be crazy to not take this deal. They could go public, but they have no clear monetization path to ever reach that valuation. For Microsoft, however, it holds incredible strategic importance to their Xbox division. If suddenly the #1 gaming voice and text chat on PC is fully cross-compatible with Xbox and Xbox services it puts Sony at a huge ecosystem disadvantage. When added to the context of Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda and their shift in strategy to Xbox as a service it makes perfect sense.

wayneftw 6y ago
If they start requiring a Microsoft account to sign in like they did with Mixer then I know a bunch of people will be out, including me. If they treat it like GitHub and let it be it's own thing then maybe I'll stick around. I doubt they're going to treat it like that though because they don't treat gamers like they do devs. Maybe now's a good time for somebody to start building an alternative.
- etempleton 6y ago
  I wonder. You are right, they would probably force accounts become Microsoft accounts at some point. I think there is also going to be higher public expectations of moderating and monitoring of what is discussed on Discord if Microsoft owns them. That may not be a headache that Microsoft even wants to deal with.
- shermablanca 6y ago
  There is an alternative, and it's quite good. https://www.guilded.gg/ https://www.guilded.gg/
  - techdragon 6y ago
    The issue is that we are entering a phase where secondary services are adding value on top of discord. Things like Patreon integration for content creators, numerous service specific bots and a growing number of VOIP related integrations (for example https://craig.chat/home/ https://craig.chat/home/) make it harder to consider alternatives as replacements.
- fragileone 6y ago
  There already is an alternative which HN loves https://element.io/ https://element.io/ https://matrix.org/ https://matrix.org/
- 0xFF0123 6y ago
  They haven't messed with Mojang / Minecraft too heavily (or altered the login flow)
  - joelellis 6y ago
    > or altered the login flow Mojang recently announced that all mojang.com accounts would be migrated to Microsoft accounts. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/mojang-account-move https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/mojang-account-move
hobofan 6y ago
Shouldn't Amazon also be bidding on Discord? Discord and Twitch are already a perfect marriage and any chance of losing that could seriously stunt Twitch.
- gmueckl 6y ago
  OBS kind of solved the UX issues of setting up a Twitch stream with a single host in a nice fashion. But there's no simple way to set up shows that need to mux multiple source streams from multiple hosts (e.g. interviews, discussions...). Discord could probably fill that niche with a good integration.
otabdeveloper4 6y ago
Discord is basically Slack but slightly better. Continuing to silo it into the gaming niche when Slack was just bought for 3 times as much makes no sense.
- madeofpalk 6y ago
  I know it's tempting to compare Slack and Discord, but they really are different applications for different use cases. Discord makes a terrible Slack. Slack makes an okay Discord.
  - otabdeveloper4 6y ago
    They're different because of branding only. Feature-wise they're 90% interchangeable. Microsoft can slap a white theme on Discord and rename it to something stupid like "Agile Teams" and have a ready-made Slack alternative.
    - Macha 6y ago
      The permissions models for the two are wildly different because of the different use cases. Discord has a lot more by way of moderating and exposing different defined subsets of your server to different admin defined user groups. Slack has opt in on a per channel basis per user and unlike discord channels, any user can just create one rather than being these things admins have to set out and organise ahead of time. Slack has pinning as a "anyone can pin" default, the thinking being users pin stuff for theirs or others future reference, discord ties it to same permission as deleting other user's messages, thinking pinning is a moderator activity for making announcements. Server admins control users on slack on the other hand. Your server admin can deactivate your entire account, DMs are tied to a server and your server admin can read them. It's a business tool, the expectation is employers have access to your business communications. The same on discord would be a massive privacy violation. But now as a business, how do you ensure that users aren't sharing passwords in chat, that your departed employee doesnt have a ton of company secrets in their dms etc
    - kayodelycaon 6y ago
schmorptron 6y ago
I don't know if it's a huge money maker, but I see a lot of my friends buying their Nitro subscription service at $10 a month, so they should at least be breaking even?
- 1_player 6y ago
  Well, my friends and I don't, so perhaps not. I have a small server, and I can't see the point of paying for Nitro just to have animated custom emojis. Not worth the $10/month to me.
  - hnnameblah365 6y ago
    There's a $5/month Classic option which still gives you all the vanity features without the server boost scheme. If you get value from Discord, would be sad to see it go out of business, and have steady income, consider subscribing at that tier. $5 feels right to me for cross-server emoji, control over your user hash, and the animated avatar. I never really bought into the server boost thing, myself.
sofixa 6y ago
IMHO vertical integrations through acquisitions on such a scale and of such importance ( Microsoft gobbling up studios and gaming tooling such as Discors) should be investigated and stoped on anti-trust grounds, or at least MS should be forced to do interoperability. It will drastically tilt the scales towards Xbox and MS cloud gaming if there's a tight integration with Discord and many Microsoft-owned exclusives.
madeofpalk 6y ago
What I would do for cross-platform voice chat with Playstation. I held a small amount of hope for Discord coming to Playstation (and Xbox), but I guess that's gone now.
banannaise 6y ago
Only if their primary motivation is profit.

wayneftw 6y ago

If they start requiring a Microsoft account to sign in like they did with Mixer then I know a bunch of people will be out, including me. If they treat it like GitHub and let it be it's own thing then maybe I'll stick around. I doubt they're going to treat it like that though because they don't treat gamers like they do devs. Maybe now's a good time for somebody to start building an alternative.

etempleton 6y ago
I wonder. You are right, they would probably force accounts become Microsoft accounts at some point. I think there is also going to be higher public expectations of moderating and monitoring of what is discussed on Discord if Microsoft owns them. That may not be a headache that Microsoft even wants to deal with.
shermablanca 6y ago
There is an alternative, and it's quite good. https://www.guilded.gg/ https://www.guilded.gg/
- techdragon 6y ago
  The issue is that we are entering a phase where secondary services are adding value on top of discord. Things like Patreon integration for content creators, numerous service specific bots and a growing number of VOIP related integrations (for example https://craig.chat/home/ https://craig.chat/home/) make it harder to consider alternatives as replacements.
fragileone 6y ago
There already is an alternative which HN loves https://element.io/ https://element.io/ https://matrix.org/ https://matrix.org/
0xFF0123 6y ago
They haven't messed with Mojang / Minecraft too heavily (or altered the login flow)
- joelellis 6y ago
  > or altered the login flow Mojang recently announced that all mojang.com accounts would be migrated to Microsoft accounts. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/mojang-account-move https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/mojang-account-move

hobofan 6y ago

Shouldn't Amazon also be bidding on Discord? Discord and Twitch are already a perfect marriage and any chance of losing that could seriously stunt Twitch.

gmueckl 6y ago
OBS kind of solved the UX issues of setting up a Twitch stream with a single host in a nice fashion. But there's no simple way to set up shows that need to mux multiple source streams from multiple hosts (e.g. interviews, discussions...). Discord could probably fill that niche with a good integration.

otabdeveloper4 6y ago

Discord is basically Slack but slightly better. Continuing to silo it into the gaming niche when Slack was just bought for 3 times as much makes no sense.

madeofpalk 6y ago
I know it's tempting to compare Slack and Discord, but they really are different applications for different use cases. Discord makes a terrible Slack. Slack makes an okay Discord.
- otabdeveloper4 6y ago
  They're different because of branding only. Feature-wise they're 90% interchangeable. Microsoft can slap a white theme on Discord and rename it to something stupid like "Agile Teams" and have a ready-made Slack alternative.
  - Macha 6y ago
    The permissions models for the two are wildly different because of the different use cases. Discord has a lot more by way of moderating and exposing different defined subsets of your server to different admin defined user groups. Slack has opt in on a per channel basis per user and unlike discord channels, any user can just create one rather than being these things admins have to set out and organise ahead of time. Slack has pinning as a "anyone can pin" default, the thinking being users pin stuff for theirs or others future reference, discord ties it to same permission as deleting other user's messages, thinking pinning is a moderator activity for making announcements. Server admins control users on slack on the other hand. Your server admin can deactivate your entire account, DMs are tied to a server and your server admin can read them. It's a business tool, the expectation is employers have access to your business communications. The same on discord would be a massive privacy violation. But now as a business, how do you ensure that users aren't sharing passwords in chat, that your departed employee doesnt have a ton of company secrets in their dms etc
  - kayodelycaon 6y ago

schmorptron 6y ago

I don't know if it's a huge money maker, but I see a lot of my friends buying their Nitro subscription service at $10 a month, so they should at least be breaking even?

1_player 6y ago
Well, my friends and I don't, so perhaps not. I have a small server, and I can't see the point of paying for Nitro just to have animated custom emojis. Not worth the $10/month to me.
- hnnameblah365 6y ago
  There's a $5/month Classic option which still gives you all the vanity features without the server boost scheme. If you get value from Discord, would be sad to see it go out of business, and have steady income, consider subscribing at that tier. $5 feels right to me for cross-server emoji, control over your user hash, and the animated avatar. I never really bought into the server boost thing, myself.

sofixa 6y ago

IMHO vertical integrations through acquisitions on such a scale and of such importance ( Microsoft gobbling up studios and gaming tooling such as Discors) should be investigated and stoped on anti-trust grounds, or at least MS should be forced to do interoperability. It will drastically tilt the scales towards Xbox and MS cloud gaming if there's a tight integration with Discord and many Microsoft-owned exclusives.

madeofpalk 6y ago

What I would do for cross-platform voice chat with Playstation. I held a small amount of hope for Discord coming to Playstation (and Xbox), but I guess that's gone now.

banannaise 6y ago

Only if their primary motivation is profit.