Jason Citron’s Discord Exit
๐๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป’๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ก๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ ๐๐๐ต๐ผ๐
Discord represented gaming’s best chance to be recognized among tech’s elite. A recognition that increasingly means political influence rather than only the validation the games industry always seeks. Jason Citron, founder and longtime Discord CEO, is stepping down at a pivotal moment, as the company gears up for an IPO. It’s a significant blow to what ought to be gaming’s broader ambition: claiming a seat at tech’s most influential table, dominated by founder-CEO figures like Zuckerberg (Meta), Chesky (Airbnb), the Collisons (Stripe), and Ek (Spotify).
Founder CEOs craft mystical founding narratives, something gaming needs but rarely cultivates. Tech founders have dramatizations like The Social Network, The Playlist (Spotify), or Super Pumped (Uber). Gaming had a chance to elevate its mythos with the unironically named ‘Mythic Quest’, our version of ‘Silicon Valley’, yet we failed to show up: season 4 will be its last.
Our founder-mythos roster carries caveats. Activision’s Bobby Kotick became something of gaming’s Steve Ballmer, founding the company on improving relationships between publishers and developers. Roblox’s David Baszucki pivoted from educational software to interactive physics, but games are rarely mentioned as inspiration. Roblox later rebranded “games” to “experiences,” as if games weren’t enough. Valve’s Gabe Newell, undeniably our smartest mind, remains aloof, reportedly spending his time aboard yachts in New Zealand waters rather than championing gaming’s cause.
Citron had a chance to rewrite the narrative. He founded Discord to build a MOBA, but pivoted to unify gamers fragmented by Skype, TeamSpeak, and Steam’s unreliable voice chat. Discord publicly renewed its vows to gaming as the core of its strategy as recently as 2024, a parcel of good news among gaming industry hopefuls. Discord boasts 200M MAU, with Discord Quests potentially becoming an acquisition channel marketers only fantasize about, particularly in a world where platforms are hostile to their largest customer industry.
Gaming now brushes broad policy spheres:ย tariff, AI, crypto, advertising…but we’ve historically failed to leverage our clout. Eric Seufert wrote in 2021’s “The App Store is The Games Store”, that games accounted for 70% of allย App Store revenue (this has since shrunk). Yet, gaming sufferedย disproportionately from Apple’s rules, countered only by Tim Sweeney’s seemingly personal vendetta. Gaming needs a broader array of influential figures to continue growing.
Everyone I’ve spoken with has praised Discord’s new CEO, Humam Sakhnini, but his background is consulting, not a deep desire to improve the medium. Regardless, Discord remains gaming’s most crucial IPO since Roblox’s 2021 offering. It’s a chance for the market to reevaluate the growth prospects of gaming as a whole, and its S-1 is likely to highlight new political and regulatory risks.
