Discord, in the words of the company and CEO Jason Citron, is redesigning the software to better serve gamers and their unique demands as opposed to continuing to be a “community-centric chat app.”
Future updates to the app will likely boost its functionality and dependability, encourage cross-platform play and interactions, add more game elements and media, and give it a fresh new design.
Although the company’s roots have always been in gaming, it is now focusing on meeting the requirements of its predominantly gaming audience. More than 90% of Discord’s 200 million monthly active members engage in gaming.
Discord intends to enhance the app’s usefulness, speed, and dependability on PCs, Xboxes, and consoles in the near future.
Apart from enhancing technology, the company aims to maintain player engagement even after play sessions conclude. Although Discord has created and released its own minigames and other activities, it intends to let other outside developers to use the platform. With the upcoming release of Discord’s Embedded App SDK, independent developers will be able to publish games on the network. To encourage gamers (and their friends) to try new games, the platform also launched Quests for more established game producers.
Discord’s shift in emphasis
Discord is giving gaming a higher priority at a moment when the platform is undergoing change.
Regarding funding, the business has raised almost $1 billion since 2013 and, in 2021, at the peak of the market, was valued at $15 billion. Although Citron is said to have thought about going public, it’s unclear if Discord is profitable.
Discord has made cutbacks in order to “resharpen its focus,” even though the firm has experimented with new revenue streams. To increase productivity, the corporation let go of 17% of its workforce in January 2024.
Apart from its financial worries, Discord has also been inspected by regulators. Citron was one of five tech CEOs that spoke about online child safety in January 2024 at a U.S. Senate hearing.
Discord’s attempt to bring gaming back into the spotlight ultimately indicates that the platform thinks games are the key to success.
