TwitchTV, the world’s leading video game broadcasting network, today announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that Paradox Interactive will be the first publisher to enable players to broadcast live gameplay directly from their games to the TwitchTV community. The Showdown Effect is their inaugural title featuring this functionality in the form of a direct link from the game’s dashboard to TwitchTV’s broadcasting platform. Given the proliferation of marquee brands streaming content on TwitchTV, the trend toward making the process more accessible for their fans was a logical next step.

‘We’ve seen explosive growth in the live broadcasting industry which is happening organically with gamers and strategically with publishers, both of which recognize that gaming has evolved into a spectator phenomenon,’ said Emmett Shear, CEO of TwitchTV. ‘Enabling players to stream their games to TwitchTV with a quick click – such as what Paradox Interactive is doing with The Showdown Effect – opens the door even wider to potential streamers in the gaming community.’

Paradox Interactive is a leading global publisher of PC-based strategy games whose portfolio includes firmly established PC franchises such as the critically acclaimed Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, the Hearts of Iron series, Magicka, Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim and the upcoming War of the Roses. 2012 marks Paradox Interactive’s most ambitious line-up of titles to date. Among them is The Showdown Effect, which is the first game to have TwitchTV integration.

‘We wanted players to be able to easily broadcast The Showdown Effect directly from their computers since many of our games are already being streamed in a less turnkey manner,’ said Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. ‘The Showdown Effect is a multiplayer game inspired by 80’s and 90’s action movies and packed with weird and wild weapons from frying pans and broomsticks to light sabers and shotguns; it really lends itself to a spectator driven medium like TwitchTV.’