Sony announced a minority investment in messaging service Discord, making its move shortly after gaming rival Microsoft’s reported talks to acquire the app provider collapsed last month.
In a statement, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, which runs its PlayStation gaming business, said the investment was made as part of Discord’s Series H funding round, worth a reported $100 million. The sum of Sony’s investment was undisclosed.
As part of the tie-up the two companies will aim to “bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile” from early 2022, but specific details on the collaboration were sparse.
The two companies have however already started working on the integration, with details expected in the coming months, added Ryan.
Discord launched in May 2015 and has more than 140 million global monthly active users.
It was the subject of takeover talks by Microsoft, for a reported $10 billion, in addition to interest from Amazon and Epic Games.
However, talks ended with Discord opting to explore ways to remain a standalone company.
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