Discord Will Start Selling Games Soon

Funny how weeks after Steam rolls out a new chat interface that clearly borrows a lot from Discord, the latter decides they’re going to get even by copying some of Steam’s style. What does Discord do? They start selling games.

Valve better watch out, a new challenger has appeared!

In an announcement on their official blog, the team behind Discord announced that their approach to this will be somewhat different from Steam. They’re opting to provide a carefully curated selection of games rather than an unfiltered massive library. Think a small, “cozy neighborhood bookstore” as opposed to a seven floor Barnes and Nobles. 

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Subscribers to Discord’s Nitro service will be among the first to enjoy some new perks. A selection of games will be available for free to all those with a Nitro account. They’ll be rolling out a beta test of this new feature to 50,000 users in Canada before opening it to all Nitro users.

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The store itself also attempts to provide a more personal experience by providing users with top recommended games.

Discord Store

These recommendations will come from both Discord employees as well as the community. Here’s an example of a recommendation for Dead Cells.

discord review

They’re also launching a pretty nifty program called “First On Discord.” Basically, it seems they’ll be offering an attractive deal for indie developers to feature their game on Discord first. After 90 days, they can sell their games on other platforms. This is a brilliant move to get people to start using their store. Gamers seeking to experience the hype of a particularly good title would have to get it through Discord, otherwise sit around waiting 90 days before getting it on Steam or another store.

Discord seems poised to be a major competitor to Steam. Instead of offering a massive collection of games, they’re planning to offer a carefully selected list of top titles. Given the recent Steam controversies associated with some shady games like the one that turned PCs into cryptocurrency miners, Discord’s take on being the “friendly neighborhood store” offering carefully curated games might quickly become the one we both need and deserve.

 


Featured Image Credits: Discord

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