Discord has signed a partnership and investment deal with Sony, in a move that likely puts to bed any rumours surrounding a potential takeover of the chat platform by Microsoft.
The amount given by Sony has not been disclosed but it is thought to be a small fee that came within Discord's latest round of funding, which is thought to have raised $100 million, according to TechCrunch.
Sony's partnership will involve integration with PlayStation as the two companies plan to "bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year", according to Sony.
In March, Discord was reportedly exploring a potential sale, with Microsoft being the most likely suitor for a deal worth around $10 billion. However, talks between the two firms reportedly ended soon after, with Discord deciding to go down the route of becoming a listed company instead.
Microsoft's plans for the chat app were unclear, but it was speculated that the tech giant would integrate the service with Xbox and maybe even use data from its growing pool of users to inform other Microsoft services.
The communications platform found success among gamers as a voice chat app, but it has since found more varied use cases during the pandemic. While Epic Games were also said to be in talks with Discord, non-gaming entities, such as Twitter and Amazon, were also rumoured to be interested.
Sony's partnership will involve integration with PlayStation as the two companies plan to "bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year", according to Sony.
Microsoft has been on a spending spree of late, including the recent acquisition of AI firm Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion and game maker Zenimax for $7.5 billion.
It was also rumoured to be interested in Pinterest and opened talks to buy Chinese social media firm TikTok last year, but ultimately lost out to Oracle. That deal, however, has been put on hold by the US government.
