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Discord Sets Sights on Steam, Adds Free Games (for Nitro subs), Launches Online Store


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https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/discord-game-store-free-games-1202900484/

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Discord, the online chat and video service used by 150 million gamers, drops into the video game sales business Thursday with the launch of a beta program that includes both free games for paid membership and a more traditional digital retail store.

 

The company is also adding a new universal game-launching tab, which can launch any game on a user’s computer from Discord without having to search for the game or its own launching program.

 

The move into game sales is designed to extend the reach of the service and find another avenue of revenue.

 

“We’ve actually been mulling the idea for a long time,” Discord chief marketing officer Eros Resmini, told Variety via email. “We wanted to build an amazing platform that people wanted to use every day and we wanted to grow that platform before focusing too much on monetization. We now have 150 million users, so timing felt right. We knew we didn’t want to sell ads or user data, so we had two options left: cosmetics or content. Nitro was our attempt at cosmetics, now we’re adding games to that subscription and building a retail store too.”

 

The beta for game sales rolls out in Canada on Thursday to 50,000 randomly selected customers. Those selected will see an upgraded version of Discord Nitro that has access to a curated selection of games along with the current subscription perks. They’ll also see a new tab in the home screen, the Discord Store, with individual games for purchase. Initially, only Windows PC users will be supported by the program.

 

Discord hasn’t yet determined how long the beta test will run in Canada, but Resmini said the plan is to slowly roll the new storefront out over time and make decisions based on user feedback. Plans to extend outside Canada are similar.

 

“We hope to slowly expand the beta to test different markets, currencies, prior to full launch later this year,” he said.

 

 

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Nitro subscribers will have free access to 10 titles: “Saints Row: The Third,” “Metro: Last Light Redux," Darksiders: Warmastered Edition,” “De Blob,” “Tormentor X Punisher,” “Dandara,” “Kathy Rain,” “GoNNER,” “Kingdom: New Lands,” “System Shock Enhanced Edition,” and “Super Meat Boy.”

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Steam needs competition. I like Steam a lot, but I am very unimpressed with Valve lately. Having more stores in the market is good. It sucks that I have to have so many different accounts, but it's worth it because competition will force Steam to innovate and be better. 

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Just now, Massdriver said:

Steam needs competition. I like Steam a lot, but I am very unimpressed with Valve lately. Having more stores in the market is good. It sucks that I have to have so many different accounts, but it's worth it because competition will force Steam to innovate and be better. 

And this represents "real" competition (along with GOG) as opposed to just another launcher (Origin/Uplay).

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32 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

And this represents "real" competition (along with GOG) as opposed to just another launcher (Origin/Uplay).

Yep, which is why I'm happy Discord and GOG are now going to take on Steam. I obviously don't want Steam to completely fail since I have over 250 games on it, but I would like them to feel some major pressure.

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I have a hard time believing this will be any sort of serious competition for a good, long while. But I hope it is. More actual competition as opposed to just another shitty fucking launcher is a good thing. These publisher-based launchers are getting out of hand and add zero value over Steam, often being far worse.


Discord also isn't adding anything of value yet, and I'm not sure they'll be able to. But I'm interested to see what they try.

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Most of my library is on Steam, the offsite deals are stellar (Humble, Fanatical, etc),  and I spend a good $40 of fake money on there a year because of card sales.


Competition is good, but it'd take a lot for Valve to lose me.  ... I'm almost more of leech.  Of the roughly $500 I've spent on games in their storefront, $200 came from marketplace profits.

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