Jason Citron is stepping down as CEO of Discord and he has employed sport veteran Humam Sakhnini as the brand new CEO.
When the parents at Discord requested me if I wished to do an unique interview Citron about his determination to step down, it was a full circle second for me.
I used to be shocked to listen to that Citron was going to depart the helm of the communications platform firm, which has been rumored to be within the pipeline to go public at a price of billions of {dollars}. I knew Citron when he was Open Feint, an organization he offered in 2011 for $104 million to Gree. He offered that firm whereas in his 20s, and you can say that he might need offered it too early.
And so I anticipated Citron, who caught it out for 13 years at Discord, to stick with the ship till it went by way of its preliminary public providing. However now Citron has employed Sakhnini and he mentioned in our interview he’ll keep on the board and transition to adviser to the CEO.
After masking Citron’s first success, Open Feint, throughout the early days of social gaming after which cell gaming, he left to start out a brand new multiplayer on-line battle enviornment (MOBA) sport. I wrote the primary story on his firm, Hammer & Chisel, and its first sport Fates Ceaselessly, which sadly didn’t catch on at a time when MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2 dominated. However Citron’s firm developed a cool voice and chat communications firm, and players quickly cherished it. They constructed Discord as a result of they wished a greater method to hang around earlier than, throughout, and after taking part in video games.
Discord cofounder Jason Citron on the firm’s San Francisco headquarters.
Now it has greater than 200 million month-to-month lively customers who spend two billion hours taking part in video games throughout 1000’s of titles. Sakhnini may very well be a good selection to guide Discord, as he beforehand took over at King for founding CEO Riccardo Zacconi when he retired. San Franciso-based Discord has greater than 800 folks.
Sakhnini brings over 15 years of gaming trade expertise to Discord. Most lately he was vice chairman at Activision Blizzard, managing a multi-billion greenback portfolio together with Name of Obligation, World of Warcraft, and Sweet Crush. Due to Sweet Crush, helped King develop working earnings from $600 million to $1.3 billion.
Requested about whether or not Discord was nonetheless headed for an IPO, Citron mentioned, “No specific plans. But as you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction.”
Whereas his accomplice Eros Resmini was on board early at Hammer & Chisel, Citron cofounded Discord with Stanislav Vishnevskiy, CTO. Discord expanded past gaming throughout the pandemic as its communications platform was a good way to speak nearly. However within the wake of the pandemic, Discord pivoted again to video games and it has been creating new methods to monetize gamers by way of advertisements and rewards. It’s now pursuing alternatives past its core shopper subscription service, together with promoting, micro-transactions, and offering social infrastructure to sport builders.
This momentum in product growth has been matched by Discord’s monetary efficiency, with continued energy in income progress and optimistic adjusted EBITDA for the previous 5 quarters, the corporate mentioned.
Humam Sakhnini is the brand new CEO of Discord.
“Building Discord over the last decade has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. From the very beginning, our mission has been about bringing people together around games. It’s a mission I’ve dedicated my career to, and I’m confident that passing the torch to Humam is the right evolution for Discord’s future,” Citron mentioned in an announcement. “His deep gaming industry expertise and proven track record of scaling businesses while fostering genuine friendships through play and shared experiences positions us perfectly for our next phase of growth. I believe this transition will accelerate our momentum and unlock even greater possibilities for Discord, our consumers, partners, and the overall gaming ecosystem in the years ahead.”
Mitch Lasky, Discord board member, mentioned in an announcement he expressed his honest gratitude to Citron as he strikes on to a brand new function. Lasky, who’s talking at our GamesBeat Summit 2025 occasion, mentioned he labored intently with Citron for greater than a decade and in addition knew Sakhnini for a few years. Lasky mentioned Sakhnini is the thought chief for the brand new part in Discord’s historical past.
Sakhnini mentioned in an announcement that what Citron and Vishnevskiy have constructed at Discord has been actually exceptional, a platform with product-market match the place lots of of hundreds of thousands of individuals join round their ardour for gaming and shared pursuits. His job is to scale it additional.
Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
Discord is seeking to have interaction players.
Jason Citron: The function of a CEO modifications as the corporate evolves. Now and again I’ve to ask myself. Do I rent somebody and provides them the work and elevate myself, or do I rent somebody and–the ultimate boss is you rent your self out of a job. As I assumed in regards to the subsequent chapter of the corporate and what could be greatest for Discord and for myself, I made the choice to rent Humam to tackle the CEO function and lead Discord from a place of energy as we concentrate on the gaming trade and take the corporate to its subsequent chapter. I’m excited to have somebody like Humam, who is worked up to be right here and assist deliver our mission to life and lead the group to that subsequent mountaintop.
GamesBeat: Had been there different priorities that helped you make this determination, different issues that affected whether or not you wished to maintain doing this?
Citron: No, the primary factor is that the corporate is doing rather well. As you understand, early final yr we refocused again on the gaming market. We’ve launched, during the last two GDCs, our social SDK and our quests enterprise. We’ve been doubling again down on constructing instruments for individuals who play video games. I’ve been personally reflecting on the trajectory of the corporate and what it will likely be over the subsequent 5 years, desirous about what I like to do. As you understand, I’m extra of a builder, an early stage sort of man. We first obtained to know one another once I was constructing OpenFeint. It’s been a minute. I don’t have particular plans for myself. I’ll perhaps take a little bit of a break to spend time with my youngsters. However it’s actually about how we take Discord to the subsequent stage. What kind of ability set and individual can try this in an unimaginable method?
GamesBeat: Everybody expects that subsequent stage to be Discord going public. Are you directing anyone on that expectation at this level?
Citron: No particular plans. However as you’ll be able to think about, hiring somebody like Humam is a step in that path. We focus on daily basis on simply making an incredible service, displaying as much as shock and delight our customers, and now actually working with trade of us to assist them deliver their creativity to life. It’s going to be in our future, however no particular plans.
Humam Sakhnini: So as to add to that, what Jason and his group have finished, which has been unimaginable past the nice success of Discord–as of late it’s simply that target gaming, actually firing on all cylinders, whether or not it’s quests or the SDK. We’re discovering loads of momentum there. We’re doing properly by our neighborhood and our product. That’s going to open up loads of alternatives. Hopefully when the correct time comes we’ll decide our shot, however proper now we’re not fixing for that particularly.
Peter Sellis of Discord at IAB Playfronts.
GamesBeat: Lots of the stuff you guys have finished–you appear to have been good stewards by way of desirous about what’s good for the sport trade in addition to good for Discord. Has that been a philosophy?
Citron: Our firm, Discord, will get to exist as a result of we’re displaying up on daily basis in service of our gamers and of builders. A lot of the fervour from all of the folks within the firm, and Humam in his profession, has come from that place of wanting to thrill gamers and assist builders deliver their creativity to life. Lots of of us on the firm come from sport growth. I did. Humam does. Stan did. We love taking part in video games, speaking to builders, and serving to them achieve success. We stay in service of these folks. That’s what will get us excited each morning.
GamesBeat: How do you attempt to flip that into one thing institutional, in order that continues after you’re gone?
Sakhnini: Let me take a primary lower. Truthfully, that’s the most important burden and problem that I concentrate on probably the most. We’re 10 years in. We’ve this unimaginable product-market match. What we’ve seen from franchises that we’ve inbuilt my final cease in my profession is that should you proceed to innovate on what’s working, these issues can actually drive you. You earn the belief of your neighborhood and you’ll proceed to develop and problem your self to innovate on the product you’ve developed.
The establishment itself is de facto true to what Jason simply outlined. We exist as a result of we offer an unimaginable service to players. We offer an unimaginable service to builders. There’s loads of love from each players and builders towards us. Our primary mission is to proceed to focus the corporate to make that higher on daily basis for everybody who’s interacting with Discord. That’s the establishment. All the pieces else flows from that.
Discord Quests are a brand new sort of rewarded advert prior to now yr.
Citron: We’ve a really sturdy tradition. I don’t know should you can see the video, however on the mirror the place I’m trying, on the wall behind us is the define of the blue turtle shell from Mario Kart. It’s on the wall as a result of I all the time inform the story about how–what’s so particular about video games to me, and to many individuals who come right here, are the tales you’ll be able to inform about these moments you had with your folks, these recollections you created. Whenever you play Mario Kart the blue shell is the right instance. You’re in final place and doing horribly, however you get the blue shell, hit the button, and your good friend hears that sound impact. They explode and also you are available in first place and so they throw the controller. You get excited. That’s the ethos of the corporate. We love serving to folks have these moments, no matter sort of video games they’re taking part in.
To Humam’s level, we’ve this unimaginable product with unimaginable market match, with passionate superfans. Nearly 900 of these folks work inside the corporate and carry the torch from their hearts on daily basis. These two issues collectively create an incredible quantity of momentum that may take the corporate ahead over its subsequent 10 years.
Sakhnini: The concentrate on gaming has been an incredible cultural bump. Everybody involves the corporate for that. They’re players themselves. When you see what individuals are doing once they’re not working, they’re hanging out with one another taking part in video games on Discord. That refocus is why every thing is working. We’re firing on all cylinders. That’s the idea of what we’ll do sooner or later.
GamesBeat: Humam, what are some learnings you’ve had in different positions you’ve held which can be going that will help you right here?
Sakhnini: Firstly, the true perception within the gaming trade. We’re within the early innings of what gaming will be for everyone. The extent of innovation and the extent of growth that may occur in gaming is core in my beliefs. I’ve been within the trade for 15 years. I’ve seen how, whenever you are likely to franchises and innovation in these franchises, you may make an excellent product even higher yearly. To me, that’s the primary factor. That’s making loads of considerate selections about the place you make investments and the place you don’t make investments. You may’t be every thing to everybody. Our concentrate on gaming and the product that’s working goes to be in the beginning.
At Activision Blizzard and King, all of the positions I had throughout the corporate, after we noticed alternative and product-market match, we poured loads of our greatest expertise, efforts, and capital to verify we may make it nearly as good as potential. That’s one thing I hope to herald there. And actually listening and connecting with our gamers and our companions. It’s a really advanced ecosystem. We have to innovate inside that. That helps fairly a bit to know the place Discord will be sooner or later.
Discord leads the marketplace for in-game or out-of-game voice chat.
GamesBeat: It’s been a loopy trade currently. I’m wondering what you concentrate on Discord virtually feeling like a shelter from the storm outdoors.
Citron: The trade is cyclical. It has its ups and downs. It’s a troublesome time. I watched your podcast with Mitch, Bing, and people guys at GDC. It was attention-grabbing to listen to you all speaking about that. Like many industries, we’ve our up moments and our down moments. Hopefully we will play an element in re-energizing playtime and distribution for builders. However one thing will come. To Humam’s level, gaming is a medium that’s so early when you concentrate on mass-market adoption of video video games. It’s additionally all the time on the bleeding fringe of know-how. Expertise innovation–video games are virtually all the time on the forefront of making the most of new issues.
I’m AI. There’s one model of the story that asks, “How does it affect production?” There’s the scary model of that round whether or not it can change folks and the way it impacts trade in that method. There’s the thrilling model of that, which is how small groups can construct unimaginable merchandise. After which there’s the half that will get me much more excited: what new sorts of leisure will be created due to AI that may reinvigorate curiosity in taking part in video games and progress and accessibility of these titles? It appears like a tough second, however I believe the sport trade’s greatest days are positively in entrance of it, not behind it.
Sakhnini: I completely agree with that. Once I made the choice to get into the enterprise of video games 15 years in the past, I keep in mind saying this: I like that it’s being disrupted. Disruption brings out the perfect generally. There’s cyclicality, I do know, and we’re at some extent the place the trade is feeling ache in several areas. However we’ve been there earlier than. What’s all the time true is that the quantity of utilization, the quantity of mindshare, and the quantity of social relevance video games have continues to go increased and better. This isn’t one thing that there isn’t shopper demand for.
We’ve gone by way of a interval the place, with completely different distribution platforms, whether or not it’s cell or the console cycles, it’s been an unimaginable time of IP innovation and distribution innovation. Then there are occasions the place that tapers off. The great thing about Discord is that should you’re a really huge writer, we work rather well for you. When you’re an unbiased, we work very properly for you as properly. We’re the place individuals are soliciting enter from their neighborhood pre-launch. We’re the place they’re distributing their product and reaching out post-launch by way of stay ops.
I’m bullish on the trade. I believe it can come again holistically. However I’m extraordinarily bullish about having the neighborhood that we’ve. It brings all of it collectively as disruption occurs, whether or not due to AI or different innovation someplace. It’s tremendous thrilling. What we’ve on this tradition, it’s a brilliant tenacious firm. We’ll adapt to the trade and we’ll discover this enjoyable.
Jason Citron (left) and Stan Vishnevskiy of Discord.
GamesBeat: What are you going to do instantly, Jason?
Citron: I want to complete Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth. I’ve a backlog. I wish to play Blue Prince. I haven’t even performed Baldur’s Gate III, imagine it or not. These wonderful 100-hour titles, it’s laborious to do this with younger youngsters and operating an organization. I’ll spend a while and chip on the backlog.
Sakhnini: I’m instantly jealous.
Citron: You simply had your hole yr. Now I’ve mine. However in all seriousness, I’m going to remain on the board of the corporate. I’ll be concerned as an adviser to assist Humam and the group as I will be useful. I like the product. I like the corporate. I like what we’ve constructed. I’m right here to assist. However Humam is getting the baton as CEO.
Sakhnini: I mentioned this to the group. I did the transition with Ricardo at King once I took over. It’s the identical right here. I’m the luckiest man, as a result of I get the good thing about the founders staying on the board and having an excellent transition. If you concentrate on most CEO transitions, it’s only a high-five on the best way out. There’s not a lot there. I’ve spent loads of time with Jason and I’ll proceed to spend time with him to verify we’re heading in the right direction and the corporate is getting the perfect out of each of us.
