Well, crap

[Nylanfs]

Microsoft is reportedly in talks to acquire messaging platform Discord

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/microsoft-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-acquire-discord-for-more-than-10-billion.html

[bmos]

Microsoft is reportedly in talks to acquire messaging platform Discord

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/microsoft-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-acquire-discord-for-more-than-10-billion.htmlIf they do get bought or go public, it might be the push I've been waiting for to move to element (https://element.io/). It's federated so you can choose a server to host your rooms in and has true end-to-end encryption. I can almost guarantee that it doesn't work as well as Discord though.

EDIT: does the FG forum "dirty language filter" not apply to titles?

[JohnD]

Expletive deleted.

[SilentRuin]

If it remains free, and adds a lot of new functionality (as they have money to throw at it), then I'm all for it. Things they've bought before have gotten radically better feature wise and did not change from "free" for my personal use. Github being the best example.

Do big companies buy stuff to kill off the competition? They do.

But I'm going to go on the data and results of things I've used they've acquired before, based on the thing I've used that they then acquired - GitHub - I'm good with it.

And for sure its long term support will then be assured (as in not in financial trouble).

One thing is for sure, I will never apply some cookie cutter opinion that simply applies to everything in all contexts without the specific data. As in "they big they bad". In this context and case, this should be a good thing.

Also, there is a very real possibility they will go public if they don't sell. And then you have boards that will concentrate on this app only as a profit driver. If they are going to sell then Microsoft is probably the safest place to sell where things do not change on the way their profit model works (as Microsoft will be after the user base and not interested in rocking the boat for profit models on the free users - public boards I think would).

[LordEntrails]

I'm not worried about it. HAsn't happened yet (the purchase). And until it does *shrugs* And then it doesn't matter until MS changes anything (if they do).

i.e. I don't stress over things that haven't happened and I can't control anyway. Plus there are always other solutions.

[Sulimo]

Microsoft is not the company it once was. (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/build-2014-a-very-different-microsoft-takes-aim-at-the-future/)

Microsoft shut down their game-focused livestreaming platform less than a year ago. (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/03/report-microsoft-in-talks-for-10-billion-acquisition-of-discord/)

If they did purchase Discord, it would be filling in a gap in their technology stack.

I don't see much of an issue with this particular endeavor.



My objection is more along the lines of consolidation into the tech giants in general being problematic, not necessarily Microsoft being the one to purchase them.

[TMO]

I use Slack for a couple of my campaigns. It's more oriented toward businessses, but it's worked pretty well thus far for us. I use it for work so I'm more familair with it than other platforms.

[Valyar]

I doubt Microsoft will screw up Discord, but they have the potential to do so - Skype didn't improve much after they acquired it... bad interface and no progress whatsoever. All was put in Teams, which is quite unfriendly for personal use for many reasons.

[Weissrolf]

Maybe that leads to better audio quality in Discord (or better server performance for that matter).

[SmackDaddy]

In case something happens to Discord (if MS buys them), a friend of mine told me about Guilded - you can even export a Discord Server template of your Discord server, then import it into Guilded and have your structure in place. Just something to consider.....as for me, our community really enjoys Discord and I don't see anything happening to it for a while.

[Sulimo]

I suspect that if Microsoft does purchase it, one of the changes will be that some premium services (as they exist right now) might be offered to XBL subscribers. I think it makes sense, they probably want the streaming capabilities for games, so giving premium features to XBL subscribers would give them a boost in that space, probably get it integrated into the consoles as well at some point.

The other option I can think of is to give O365 users access to some premium features as well, but that might be at cross purposes with Teams.

Either way, I hope they leave the free tier alone, if they upset that apple-cart, people will find a different platform.

[damned]

Either way, I hope they leave the free tier alone, if they upset that apple-cart, people will find a different platform.

Free requires deep pockets or some other method to raise money and Discord already ruled out Ads (AFAICR).
I cant believe it has a $10b valuation
For something that has negligible revenue and hamstrung by a commitment to no ads.

[bmos]

I cant believe it has a $10b valuation
For something that has negligible revenue
I think you just described most of the US financial system :p
At least when you're looking at net.

[JohnD]

It may be a value from the perspective of "one of the big tech giants is going to own it eventually, might as well be us so nobody else gets it".

[minuteman2020]

In case something happens to Discord (if MS buys them), a friend of mine told me about Guilded - you can even export a Discord Server template of your Discord server, then import it into Guilded and have your structure in place. Just something to consider.....as for me, our community really enjoys Discord and I don't see anything happening to it for a while.

Guilded used to have serious issues with voice quality. It's the reason why competitive end-game raid guilds in MMO don't use it. (or at least didn't when I was running competitive end game raid guilds)

It may be reasonable for TTRPG, but I wouldn't count on it.

[Mellock]

It's a good way to buy an entire community/customer base. They got developers with GitHub. They got a huge medical customer base with Dragon Nuance, and now they can buy a pre-packaged gaming community that is already engaged and can be plugged into their Xbox community. If they can get it to work on their own Azure platform, like they did with Minecraft, that would be a PR win too. MS isn't the MS of the 90's anymore, and it's nothing like Google, which seems to shut down a messaging app every other week. I loathe subscriptions, but aside from Spotify and Netflix, I'm pretty happy to use it every day for the gaming group I'm in. Although I hope they do better than they did with Skype.

[Mytherus]

Ill be honest i really like discord for my games. I like the voice i like the different text channels i can make specific to a campaign...like a rules channel a info channel etc. I'm in IT been supporting and working with MS products in both the home consumer and enterprise markets for almost 25 years. As long as they wouldnt charge too much...id be willing to pay for what i get now if ms gets discord and improves a few things. I wouldnt pay 50 bucks a month or anything crazy like that though...

[BaneTBC]

Discord ended talks with Microsoft for them to purchase them at this time.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/discord-ends-deal-talks-with-microsoft-11618938806

[atomichammer]

They want to drink up that Milkshake too and grab the userbase. They got Skype, Phasing out Skype for Business for MS Teams, in ten years Discord Enterprise ed. For their office 365 platform.

[damned]

As others have said - this would most likely be a way to tie in closer with the xbox/pcgamer communities rather than corporate clients.
Teams has wildly different functionality from Discord - there is no chance of Discord replacing Teams in the business environment.

[atomichammer]

As others have said - this would most likely be a way to tie in closer with the xbox/pcgamer communities rather than corporate clients.
Teams has wildly different functionality from Discord - there is no chance of Discord replacing Teams in the business environment.

Totally Disagree, I remember people said the same thing about Skype back in the day. If MS could absorb it into its fold they would. And Discord is very similar to Teams, I mean yeah, Discord isn't integrated with other cloud based apps like MS has and doesn't have Video Calls. But most end users I had to hand hold with Teams Just use the basic chat, file share, and video calls.

And the thing is, it isn't really about replacing it with Teams. It's just about owning it. Most of the MS enterprise do similar things already like SharePoint/Yammer - Teams/Skype. Companies like MS when it comes to Acquisition are like the Blob from the old Monster Movies. They don't care what its for or what it does, if it can make the MS Blob grow it will try to eat you and absorb you in it's mass.

But it's all moot if Discord wont sell.

[Mellock]

It's probably just a matter of time. I really like discord, and have a subscription, but I somehow doubt they're making the needed profits. They raised capital, they're probably burning through that steadily, and the business model for many startups in their position is just that: "get bought by a big player and finally reap the rewards". I'm obviously no CEO though. :D

[damned]

SharePoint and Yammer?
Discord and Teams?

If you say so...