Discord Introduces Controversial Sponsored Quests, Abandoning Ad-Free Roots
• Discord plans to introduce "Sponsored Quests" - paid promotions in cooperation with game makers that reward users for completing in-game challenges
• This abandons Discord's longstanding commitment to being ad-free in order to boost gaming and subscription revenue
• Initial user response to the advertising pivot has been largely negative due to concerns over trust and integrity
• Discord states users can turn off promotions in Settings, but it's unclear if this applies to all users
• The ad model rollout comes after Discord laid off 17% of staff earlier this year