Discord has become a lot more than just a gaming-focused app for sending messages and making voice calls. And it looks like it may become even more, as the company explores ways to let servers – and content creators within – make money. This will come in the form of one-time purchases called Downloadables, which will be sold in a Server Shop.
Both are still features that are being tested by Discord. Downloadables will come in the form of digital products, with the company highlighting recipe ebooks – gaming guides and digital wallpapers as examples. This will be sold in said Server Shop, which will also include Server Subscriptions and Premium Roles for members to buy.
Beyond these, Discord will also be introducing Tier Templates for Server Subscriptions. It’s basically standardised tiers for subscriptions, with the company setting the prices. There will also be media channels for subscriber-only content, and with subscription tiers, server owners and admins can be more granular with their paywalling.
If you’ve been a member of the online fighting games community, you’ve probably heard of the meme known as Secret Discord Tech. Once upon a time, it was a joke about certain fighting game strategies that you’ll only learn if you’re a member of a particular server, which purportedly only consists of the top fighting game players in the world. Now, that urban legend may just become reality with the service allowing servers to paywall channels.
At any rate, the company has not said when it intends to roll these features out. There’s a waitlist that you can join if you want to be notified the moment they become available. On one hand, this is being framed as “new ways creators can open up shop and build a business from the comfort of their Discord server”. But on the other, this feels like the kind of change that would drive some people away from really larger servers, especially those by content creators.
(Source: Discord)
