Discord's Nitro Games will be closed in October

(Image credit: Discord)

Discord's Nitro program, a subscription-based service offers enhanced features on the platform and unlimited access to a library of indie and big-budget games, is being closed. Discord said today that it's "learned a lot" since Nitro went live in October 2018, including that the vast majority of Nitro subscribers don't actually play the games.

"So, after careful consideration, we won’t be hitting Continue when these contracts come up for renewal," Discord wrote. "The Nitro Games catalogue will be removed on October 15th, 2019."

Nitro was available for $10 per month or $100 per year, or $5 per month for the Discord "perks"—a custom Discord tag, custom emojis, a larger file upload limit, that sort of thing—without the games. Those price points will be maintained, but the packages will be changed to reflect the absence of the games. The $10 plan, which also supports higher-quality "Go Live" streams and enables subscribers to "boost" servers they're on, has had its maximum upload size doubled to 100MB, and the number of boosts required to reach level 3 has been cut from 50 to 20. The $5 subscription will now offer all the chat perks, but will not enable server boosting.

(Servers can be boosted up to three levels, with more perks being added as more people apply boosts—so if ten Nitro subscribers boost the same server, for instance, it will be boosted to level 2.)

More additions to the $10 package are promised for the future: Discord said it's "going to double down on making sure Nitro nails its mission," with "more features, fun, and enhancements for hanging out in Discord with the people you care about." It also invited subscribers to submit suggestions for features they'd like to see added through the Discord support site.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.