diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 2008e54a5..12d751713 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 shadPS4 Emulator Project
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
-
 [submodule "third-party/imgui"]
 	path = third-party/imgui
 	url = https://github.com/ocornut/imgui
@@ -29,9 +26,6 @@
 	path = third-party/winpthread
 	url = https://github.com/shadps4/winpthread.git
 	branch = main
-[submodule "third-party/discord-rpc"]
-	path = third-party/discord-rpc
-	url = https://github.com/discord/discord-rpc
 [submodule "third-party/toml11"]
 	path = third-party/toml11
 	url = https://github.com/ToruNiina/toml11
@@ -47,3 +41,7 @@
 [submodule "third-party/vulkan"]
 	path = third-party/vulkan
 	url = https://github.com/GPUCode/vulkan
+[submodule "externals/discord-rpc"]
+	path = externals/discord-rpc
+	url = https://github.com/shadps4-emu/ext-discord-rpc.git
+	branch = master
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 074fc84b9..e63f41ab2 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ if (CLANG_FORMAT)
     unset(CCOMMENT)
 endif()
 
+add_subdirectory(externals)
 add_subdirectory(third-party)
 include_directories(src)
 
diff --git a/externals/CMakeLists.txt b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0dcd7cb4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright 2024 shadPS4 Emulator Project
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+
+if (MSVC)
+    # Silence "deprecation" warnings
+    add_definitions(-D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -D_CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE -D_SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS)
+endif()
+
+# Discord-RPC
+set(BUILD_EXAMPLES OFF CACHE BOOL "")
+add_subdirectory(discord-rpc EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+target_include_directories(discord-rpc INTERFACE ./discord-rpc/include)
+
+
diff --git a/externals/discord-rpc b/externals/discord-rpc
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..a3fa5e32f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/externals/discord-rpc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit a3fa5e32f64297247b683c35acb4ab1f207171ed
diff --git a/third-party/CMakeLists.txt b/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
index 493595160..574e7863b 100644
--- a/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,11 +6,6 @@ if (MSVC)
     add_definitions(-D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -D_CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE -D_SCL_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS)
 endif()
 
-# Discord-RPC
-set(BUILD_EXAMPLES OFF CACHE BOOL "")
-add_subdirectory(discord-rpc EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
-target_include_directories(discord-rpc INTERFACE ./discord-rpc/include)
-
 # fmtlib
 add_subdirectory(fmt EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
 
@@ -68,6 +63,6 @@ target_include_directories(imgui PUBLIC
     imgui/include
 )
 
-target_link_libraries(imgui PRIVATE SDL3-shared ${CMAKE_DL_LIBS} Zydis discord-rpc)
+target_link_libraries(imgui PRIVATE SDL3-shared ${CMAKE_DL_LIBS} Zydis)
 
 
diff --git a/third-party/discord-rpc b/third-party/discord-rpc
deleted file mode 160000
index 963aa9f3e..000000000
--- a/third-party/discord-rpc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 963aa9f3e5ce81a4682c6ca3d136cddda614db33