Is Discord Breaking Up With Gaming?
Though created with gaming in mind, Discord, the popular voice and text chat app, appears to be moving in a new direction. Jason Citron formulated the software as a low resource, reliable way to talk tactics in titles like League of Legends. Recent changes to the platform, however, seem to de-emphasize its connection to video games.
The shift started last year when Discord's premium service, Discord Nitro, nixed its free game offerings. According to the announcement, not enough people took advantage of the feature to warrant keeping it.
"Through your valuable feedback, it became clear that while we and some of you love these games, the truth is the vast majority of Nitro subscribers didn't play them," shared the company. "So, after careful consideration, we won't be hitting Continue when these contracts come up for renewal."
Unfortunately, the removal of the Nitro Games catalog was only the beginning.
Discord is cutting gaming features
The latest cuts further cement Discord's new approach. In a blog post titled "Tidying Up Discord," the company announced its decision to axe the Activity Feed and Library. No longer will gamers be able to launch games from Discord or receive snippets of gaming news from the Activity Feed.
"You use Discord to hang out in your servers with your friends," read the announcement. "We want you to customize those spaces with the stuff you care about, and not have to worry about opening Discord and seeing updates for a game you played once 8 months ago ... oh Activity Feed ... "
Some fans celebrated the changes, however, based on the comments, most continue to lament this apparent "tidying up" and what it means for the future of the software. Discord remains tied to gaming — just a glance at the official website makes this clear — but the devs seem to be shifting their focus towards the other demographics using the service. Based on the response so far, many gamers seem unhappy with these new tactics.
We'll have to keep an eye on further "tidying up" updates to see if Discord is really giving gaming the cold shoulder.