Path of Exile Hops on Twitch Bandwagon, Integrates Streaming Support

Developers lately have been adding Twitch.tv support to their games about as often as someone shouts out "Esports!" Trouble is, I often wonder who actually uses the integrated options versus the standalone setup.

While games like Firefall give players access to one-touch streaming, they usually do so at the cost of control over some of their stream settings. Communication with viewers outside of the game also means streamers must still play in windowed mode or alt tab in order to converse with fans.

But Grinding Gear Games have moved mountains in order to make Path of Exile's recent integration of Twitch as seamless as possible. While streaming in Path of Exile, players can now read stream comments through the in-game chat system in real time. Linking a Path of Exile account with Twitch will also add public icons on the homepage which visitors can click on to visit the stream. There's more to the integration including webcam support, which you can read about in the detailed 0.11.2 patch notes.

The patch wasn't all for Twitch though. A large portion of the update focused on balancing the passive tree and tweaking gameplay mechanics. On the visual side incremental improvements to sound, art, effects and environment continue to be added. Finally, new unique items were added along with a cosmetic item called the Extra Gore Weapon Effect. For those who can never have too much gore.