Discord Relents On Shunning Ads With A Rewards Program For Gamers
Traditionally, Discord has had an anti-advertisement stance, running its business on in-app subscriptions, called Discord Nitro, that give some platform-wide perks. However, this has changed as of late, especially with the layoffs that happened earlier this year, wherein 17% of Discord staff were cut. Given this reality, despite continued growth of the platform, which hosts a reported 1.5 billion hours of gameplay every month, Discord likely needs support beyond Nitro subscriptions. As such, the platform is introducing something called Quests, as “a way for players to discover games and earn rewards for playing them on Discord.”
In the past year, you may have seen Discord experimenting with Quests in conjunction with developers like Epic Games and the “May the 4th” Fortnite Quest. Quests are a way that developers can pay Discord to float their game, while giving some rewards to players who share their gaming experience. The blog post from earlier in the month notes, "Developers and publishers who sponsor Quests will work with our team to build an experience that showcases their game and offers a reward tailored for their game.”
Beyond Quests, Discord is also building out its shop where users can buy cosmetic effects for their Discord profile, not unlike Steam’s profile customization. Previously, this consisted of only Discord-themed things, but now they are bringing in game-themed decorations alongside the Quest addition. No matter what, all these additions should be fairly low-key methods of making money for Discord and aren’t as disruptive as some would make them out to be. We will have to see how it all shapes up -- time will tell.
