Back in 2017, the chatroom application Discord globally launched their subscription service known as Nitro. Nitro gave the ability to use specific animated icons, added size for sending files, a higher quality screenshare with the ability to broadcast with Go Live, the ability to boost servers, and a bunch of game perks for games like Paladins, Warframe, and others. It was either pay by monthly, or pay by yearly, with two different tiers of how much the user wanted.
Then, a year later in 2018, Discord unveiled their own gaming subscription service that came with Nitro, called Nitro Gaming. Within the monthly fee that users paid already, they would be offered several games that came with the service. At the time there were only 50 games to choose from, with the possible update of getting more in the future. These games included familiar titles such as SOMA, Super Meat Boy, Guacamelee!, and more.
However in a turn of events, and after having Nitro Gaming for a year, Discord has made a decision to cut the ties from the service:
Nitro Gaming, while loved by those who did use it, did not actually have very many people who took advantage of the system. From the blog post that the Twitter link leads to, Discord’s Nelly wrote this:
We learned a lot from all of you over the last year. Through your valuable feedback, it became clear that while we and some of you love these games, the truth is the vast majority of Nitro subscribers didn’t play them.
The blog post reads further on about how they’re planning on removing the Nitro Games service entirely in mid-October. They have promised that those who used Nitro Gaming and want to cancel because of this, that there would be a refund for those people.
But with Nitro Gaming coming to an end, Discord has promised that this allows them to start putting focus on other aspects of their services. They don’t specify what exactly these aspects are other than “more features, fun, and enhancements”. These will most likely be revealed further into the process after Nitro Gaming is removed.
Discord has set the date to remove the Nitro Gaming services on October 15, 2019. For more information about the situation, check out the blog post here, or their Twitter here.