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Microsoft’s $2.5 billion deal to buy Swedish developer Mojang and the sandbox series Minecraft has now officially closed, Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer announced on Twitter today.

After some reports and speculation, Microsoft on September 15 announced plans to buy Mojang and Minecraft in the multibillion dollar deal. Now that the deal has gone through, Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson and two other key Mojang developers will leave the studio. Persson, who owned 70 percent of Mojang, stands to make around $1.75 billion from the acquisition.

Writing on Twitter, Persson reflected on moving away from Mojang.

At the time the buyout was announced, Persson said about the deal: “It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.” It’s unclear what the future holds for Persson or if he’ll be involved in game development in any way.

Mojang joins other internal Microsoft game studios such as 343 Industries (Halo), Black Tusk Studios (Gears of War), Lionhead Studios (Fable), and Turn 10 Studios (Forza), among others.

Microsoft has said that it will not remove versions of Minecraft for competing players, including PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. Regarding the future of Minecraft, Spencer said last month that it’s too early to talk about a potential Minecraft 2.

At the time, Spencer explained that Microsoft must first “meet the needs” of the existing Minecraft community before the company expands the franchise.

Outside of Minecraft the game, Warner Bros. is currently working on a Minecraft movie. Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy is reportedly a frontrunner to direct the “large-budget” movie, which is in the very early stages of development and might not be released until 2017 or 2018.

Microsoft maintains that the $2.5 billion Minecraft acquisition will be “break-even in FY15 on a GAAP basis.”

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red today announced a free DLC program for the 2015 role-playing game, and it does not disappoint. The studio will release a whopping 16 add-on packs for the RPG, all of which will be completely free, and are not tied to any platform.

The first bundle of DLC expansions for The Witcher 3 will be released on February 25, a day after the game’s public release. This content will come in the form of the Temerian Armor Set (includes horse armor) and the Beard and Hairstyle Set for main character Geralt.

After February 25, DLC bundles featuring two expansions will be released every week. Other content will include more quests and personalization options. CD Projekt Red has also released a Q&A about the free Witcher 3 DLC, which should clear up any questions you might have. You can read the full Q&A below.

You might be wondering why CD Projekt Red is giving away all the DLC instead of charging for it like so many other publishers do. CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwinski explains in an open letter to fans that offering free DLC is unfortunately “quite rare these days.”

“As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialize with a steep price tag attached. Haven’t we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?” he says.

“As CD Projekt Red, we strongly believe this is not the way it should work and, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, we have decided to do it differently,” he added. “This is our way of saying thank you for buying our game.”

The Witcher 3 launches February 24 across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. For more, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.

Q: What do I have to do to receive the 16 free DLCs?

A: The only thing you need to do to receive the 16 DLCs is purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. All of the DLCs will be available for free on every platform (i.e. Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4).

Q: Do I have to pre-order to get the free DLCs?

A: No, each piece of content will be available for download regardless of you buying the game before or after launch on February 24th, 2015.

Q: I have the standard version of the game (i.e. not the Collector’s Edition). Do I still get the free DLCs?

A: Yes. You get the 16 DLCs regardless of the version of the game you bought (i.e. standard or Collector’s, digital or physical).

Q: What’s the plan? When can I expect the DLCs to be released?

A: The plan is to release a new DLC bundle (each bundle contains two DLCs) on a weekly basis, following the game’s launch February 24th, 2015. The first DLC bundle will be released the next day on February 25th. The next bundle will be available for download a week after that, on March 4th, the next on March 11th, and so on. The first bundle will contain the Temerian Armor Set and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt. The second bundle will contain an additional quest and an alternative look for one of the game’s main characters–Yennefer of Vengerberg.

Q: Where can I find out more?

A: You can find more details on thewitcher.com. At this moment, four DLCs (two bundles) are revealed. The remaining DLCs will be unveiled each week after launch.

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BlizzCon 2014 doesn’t kick off until tomorrow, but someone is already in line for the two-day show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. As you might expect, this person–Brendan “Tibs” Thibodeau–is supremely dedicated to Blizzard Entertainment games, so much so that he has an incredible 29 level 90 World of Warcraft characters, he tells WoW Insider today.

This is the sixth BlizzCon that Thibodeau has attended. Out of the six shows he’s been to, he says he’s been first in line four times. He’s a 15-year Navy veteran whose been playing World of Warcraft since December 2005.

“World of Warcraft was my second home,” Thibodeau told WoW Insider, saying he spent some of his time while overseas in the Navy playing World of Warcraft as well as when he returned home. “It was getting on and meeting other people from all over the world and having those connections.”

Thibodeau went on to say that he just recently earned a degree in game production and hopes to work for Blizzard one day. If he’s hoping to work on the World of Warcraft team, he’s probably happy to learn that Blizzard has plans to keep the game around until at least 2024.

BlizzCon officially begins tomorrow, November 8, and runs through Saturday evening, when Metallica will close out the show with a concert. Some of Blizzard’s suprises for BlizzCon may have emerged ahead of schedule, as trademarks for unannounced Blizzard projects called Eye of Azshara and Overwatch were recently discovered.

Next week on November 13, Blizzard will release Warlords of Draenor, the fifth expansion for the genre-defining PC MMO. The game had 7.4 million subscribers as of September 30.

While BlizzCon is entirely sold out for physical tickets, you can still buy virtual tickets for $40 through Blizzard’s website today. GameSpot will have editors on the ground from BlizzCon bringing you news, interviews, and analysis of the show.

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Ahead of the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11, series developer 343 Industries has now announced the Halo Championship Series. The HCS, as it will be known, is an official esports leagued dedicated exclusively to the popular sci-fi shooter franchise.

According to the announcement post on Halo’s website, the HCS was created to serve as a platform for professional Halo players, enthusiasts, and spectators. It will operate as the single sanctioning body for Halo, Microsoft explained. The company is getting help from Twitch, the ESL, and “various tournament organizers” as it rolls out various Halo tournaments.

The first season of the HCS will begin just after the release of The Master Chief Collection and run through March 2015. Per rules published on the Halo website, teams of four Spartans will compete in a “structured series” of online and in-person Halo 2: Anniversary tournaments.

The top teams from these tournaments will be awarded HCS points, and at the end of each season, teams with the highest point totals will be invited to play in the season finals in March 2015.

More information about the HCS is available at its official website. In the coming weeks, 343 Industries will release the official HCS rules handbook, and begin to accept registrations for teams looking to compete in the first season.

More details on the HCS will be shared during the $50,000 Master Chief Collection launch invitational tournament that kicks off on November 8.

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Although Nintendo’s first wave of Amiibo toys have yet to hit retail, Nintendo is already teasing that future forms of the NFC-powered toys could extend beyond Mario, Peach, and Zelda figures.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained during a recent Q&A session with analysts that not only is the company planning to make more games compatible with Amiibo, but that the Japanese firm has a bolder vision for how the GamePad’s NFC functionality could work someday.

“We are thinking about making many more games compatible with Amiibo from next year,” Iwata said during the presentation. “We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure, either. We believe that Amiibo could take a variety of different forms.”

Iwata revealed that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is already working on “multiple ways” to use the GamePad and the NFC functionality “more aggressively.” It could be as early as next year that we get to see what Miyamoto has been cooking up, Iwata teased.

“We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure” — Satoru Iwata

“Some of our products in 2015 might be a result of this new focus,” he said.

Miyamoto also spoke during the presentation, saying that Nintendo’s goal for the Amiibo toy line–and whatever comes next–is to make gamers feel a “sense of wonder.” He explained that in order to differentiate the Wii U and 3DS from the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, Nintendo needs to make the gaming experience feel like the user is playing with a new toy.

He also revealed that the Amiibo product range will eventually include cards.

“For example, when Amiibo become cards, we can create a game which can be played only by passing several cards over the NFC reader/writer, and the results will be stored in the Amiibo card,” he said. “I cannot discuss any of the details today, but Amiibo has the potential to propose new ways to play card games.”

Some of Nintendo’s other future Amiibo plans, Miyamoto said, involve launching “smaller and even more affordable” figures so that the toy line can appeal to a wide variety of users. He said he’s even thinking about how Amiibo can be used for Animal Crossing games in the future.

“Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet” — Shigeru Miyamoto

Meanwhile, Miyamoto admitted that Nintendo focused too much on the dual-screen nature of the Wii U (i.e. the GamePad/TV functionality), instead of showing gamers the unique capabilities that the GamePad’s built-in NFC could provide.

“Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet,” he said. “We are still making efforts to demonstrate the potential of Wii U even today, we have to admit that we might have focused too much on the unique uses of the two screens. We should have put more effort into using the NFC functionality much earlier, but we are now moving forward with projects that make use of NFC in a variety of unique ways.”

The first game to support Amiibo toys is Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which launches on November 21. Mario, Link, Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong, and Pikachu are among the figures featured in the first wave of figures, though more are coming in December.

Amiibo toys will only work on Wii U right away, though Nintendo plans to release an adapter for 3DS later. In addition, the New 3DS–available only in Japan right now–features built-in NFC functionality.

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Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix today announced financial results for the six-month period ended September 30, and they were strong. Overall, the Japanese publisher posted revenue of ¥73.1 billion ($637.6 million), compared to ¥61.6 billion ($537.5 million) last year. Meanwhile, profit more than doubled, rising from ¥2.6 billion ($22.7 million) last year to ¥5.7 billion ($49.7 million) this year.

Square Enix said its games for smartphones and PC, such as Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light, Schoolgirls Strikers, and Sengoku IXA “continued to post favorable results.” Meanwhile, console game sales increased year-over-year, and back catalog sales were particularly “strong” in the Western market, Square Enix said. On top of those, the publisher said its MMO Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X have been making “favorable progress.”

Square Enix is not just a video game company, as the publisher also operates Amusement, Publication, and Merchandising divisions. However, the company’s game unit–called Digital Entertainment–was the breadwinner of the bunch, posting more revenue and profit than the other three units combined.

For the period ended September 30, net sales in Square Enix’s game division totaled ¥43.7 billion ($381.4 million), an increase of 42.8 percent. Operating income was ¥7.9 billion ($68.9 million), up from ¥3.4 billion ($29.7 million) last year.

Looking ahead, Square Enix has boosted its earnings projections for the fiscal year ending March 2015. The company now expects to haul between ¥150 billion-¥160 billion ($1.3 billion-$1.4 billion), up from the previous forecast of ¥140 billion-¥150 billion ($1.2 billion-$1.3 billion). Square Enix has also revised its profit projection, now expecting to make between ¥7 billion-¥10.5 billion ($61 million-$91 million) for the year, compared to its previous estimation of between ¥3.5-¥6.5 billion ($30.5 million-$56.7 million).

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