Author: dpugh007

Digital distributor GOG.com kicks off its Fall sale today, with over 700 games discounted on its online store. For the first 48 hours of the sale, customers are able to pick up a copy of open-world role-playing game Mount & Blade for free.

In addition to this, sequel Mount & Blade: Warband and the Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword expansion are marked down by 75%. All of Hasbro’s D&D games are also 80% off, including the positively-received Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.

Two daily bundles and flash deals occurring every 40 minutes are planned for the duration of the Fall sale. Returning GOG.com customers will also be able to pick up free copies of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Gamers: Director’s Cut film. As per the distributor’s usual approach, all games will be free of any DRM.

GOG.com turned six years old this in September this year. For more on how the site evolved from a niche online platform for classic games and plans for the near future, check out our interview with managing director Guillaume Rambourg.

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If you thought the PlayStation 4 was lacking in period fighting games, you’re in luck. Publisher Gun Media and developer SuperSoul have announced on the PlayStation Blog that their 1920s-themed fighting game, Speakeasy, is coming to the PS4 “soon.” No word yet on an Xbox One or PC version.

“Speakeasy is an incredibly simple to learn, but difficult to master game that will require you to match wits with your opponent, who happens to be standing right next to you,” producer Ben Strauss says.

In Speakeasy, you’ll play as a fighter who is trying to win the Fistcuffs League Champion crown. All you need to do is land one punch to win. However, you only get one punch, one block, and one fake to use each round. And because every round only last ten seconds, “you must choose your moves wisely.”

Speakeasy will feature characters inspired by celebrities and personalities of the 1920s, including Amelia Earhart and Charlie Chaplin, among others. Every character comes with multiple costumes, props, and unlockables so that players can tailor their fighter however they see fit.

The game also features multiple game modes, including those where you’re allowed to use two or three moves per match–though you’ll still only need to land one punch to claim victory. Speakeasy will also feature a Tag Team mode where teams of fighters will square off. Meanwhile, a King of the Hill mode lets up to four players fight at the same time.

Speakeasy also features a tournament mode, where up to 16 players can duke it out in a variety of settings. For more on Speakeasy, check out the image gallery below.

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Earlier this week, 343 Industries finally revealed how the multiplayer mode for Xbox One shooter Halo 5: Guardians will shake up the franchises’ formula with a range of new player abilities. Now, creative director Tim Longo says he thinks Halo 5 can play a role in helping arena shooters return to prominence.

“I think arena shooters are coming back,” Longo told Eurogamer. “I think we’ll see more and more of them, and we want to be at the forefront of that, because Halo’s always been about that.”

Halo 5 will push the arena shooter genre forward with its new player abilities, including sprinting, aiming down sights, boosting, and more, Longo says. But he’s also quick to remind fans that everyone will have access to these abilities, which should mean your success will mostly depend on pure skill.

“Add some of our new toys in the toy box, like Spartan Abilities, to expand upon it, so there’s still depth,” he said about the arena shooter category. “But then the even playing field, because everyone has them, skill will play a big part.”

Finally, Longo teased that Halo 5’s multiplayer arena mode is “just the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the game’s multiplayer support. “We’re only talking about arena now, but there’s more to multiplayer to come for Halo 5 later,” he said.

You’ll be able to try Halo 5’s multiplayer for yourself when the beta kicks off next month on Xbox One. For more on Halo 5, check out the video above and our previous coverage of the game.

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The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has published a new study that, among other things, claims the video game industry is growing at a rate four times faster than the US economy.

The new study, called Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2014 Report, also reveals that hiring trends for the video game industry are booming. From 2009 to 2012, the video game industry’s annual job growth rate was 9 percent, which was 13 times the rate of the United States labor market at .72 percent

Check out the chart below to see employment trends across other US industries.

The ESA tapped consulting firm Economist Incorporated to conduct its new study, which also found that the video game industry directly employs more than 42,000 people across 36 states as of 2012. This is up by more than 30 percent compared to data from 2009.

In terms of what video game developers are being paid, the study found that the average wage in 2012 was around $95,000, up from $92,000 in 2009. Similar to other industries, video game employee salaries can vary dramatically depending on company, title, and role.

Some other key findings of the 2014 report, per The ESA, include:

• The US video game industry’s value added to US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was over $6.2 billion.
• The real annual growth rate of the US video game industry was 9.7 percent for the 2009-2012 period. This compares to a real growth rate for the entire US economy of 2.4 percent.
• California ranks highest in terms of total number of video game developers, with more than 17,000 employees in the state.
• The next closest was Texas, which had just under 5,000 video game employees. Other top-ranking states include Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and Illinois.

You can read the entire report here.

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