Those who started playing Minecraft before 2019 are likely to remember the name Notch well. Notch is the Swede who created Minecraft all by himself. Nowadays, hardly anyone talks about the developer, and there is only a reference to him in Minecraft itself. What is Notch doing today?
This man created Minecraft: Markus Alexej “Notch” Persson is a developer from Sweden who released the first version of Minecraft in March 2009 – back then in the form of a private alpha that only invited testers could play.
Persson is said to have played his first video games and learned to program on his father’s Commodore 128 at the age of 7 or 8 (via gamedeveloper.com; now unreachable).
According to his statements, he got his first job as a game developer around 2005, back then at King.com (via YouTube). The site is primarily known for browser games that are usually just played in passing. The biggest hit of the studio is Candy Crush. Today, King belongs to Activision Blizzard.
Minecraft is immensely popular. A trailer for the game has even garnered over 160 million views:
Notch doesn’t want to be a CEO, sells Minecraft for 2.5 billion dollars
The launch of Minecraft: Minecraft started as a one-man project under the name “RubyDung” and Persson never expected a great success. At least, that was not the plan. He created Minecraft in his free time as a hobby.
In May 2009, Persson offered his project through an IRC channel and improved the game based on feedback from testers. In 2010, after enough sales, the Swede finally left his job behind and developed Minecraft full-time.
To support his project, Persson eventually founded Mojang, which is still responsible for Minecraft today, but belongs to Microsoft. Minecraft was finally released in November 2011 as a full version and has since become the most successful video game of all time.
With over 238 million copies sold, Minecraft stands far ahead (via Xbox.com), followed by the already distant GTA 5 with 170 million copies (via GamesIndustry.biz). The 1984 developed old game Tetris from the Soviet Union is said to have sold over 500 million units, but due to frequent changes of developers and versions, this number cannot be reliably verified.
By the way, one of the inspirations for Minecraft was allegedly Dwarf Fortress. The simulation with dwarves recently appeared on Steam and made the developers millionaires after 20 years. Here’s the trailer:
How did Minecraft end up with Microsoft? In 2014, Persson announced that he no longer wanted to lead Mojang. In a post on his website, he wrote: “I am not an entrepreneur. I am not a CEO. I am a nerdy developer who likes to voice opinions on Twitter.” (via Archive.org)
Just months earlier, he had offered Mojang for sale – with a tweet. Several large companies reportedly applied for the strange offer, including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft.
Microsoft eventually won the bid for a hefty 2.5 billion US dollars. The deal is still regarded as one of the largest in video game history and made Persson an instant billionaire.
Microsoft and Mojang are also quite active in exploiting the Minecraft IP. In 2023, a new game in the universe is set to be released: the strategy game Minecraft Legends, which has already impressed me. Here’s the trailer:
Controversial opinions on Twitter lead to Notch’s downfall
What happened to Persson next: Persson supported charitable projects like Doctors Without Borders and together with Mojang the Humble Indie Bundle, for which the studio developed a game. This brought in over 450,000 US dollars at the time (via Eurogamer). After that, however, Persson withdrew from development.
In his farewell speech, Persson stated that he did not see himself as a game developer and had not created any noteworthy games since Minecraft. In 2015, Persson purchased a villa in Los Angeles for 70 million US dollars.
Shortly after, reports surfaced that the billionaire was unhappy. However, he denied this with the statement that he was just having a bad day and vented about it. Later, his tweets became noticeably stranger.
Where did the controversy come from? In the years following his separation from Mojang, Notch was very active on Twitter. After all, that’s something he enjoys doing, as he mentioned in his farewell to Minecraft. He still had a proud 3.6 million followers in January 2023.
However, he attracted attention here with controversial statements. Comments like: “It’s okay to be white,” “Most people who claim to be feminists are just excessively sexist against men,” or demands for a “Hetero-Pride-Day” were apparently poorly received (via TheMarySue).
He also made statements about conspiracy theories surrounding “Pizzagate” and QAnon (via DenOfGeek). Furthermore, he allegedly stated that trans women are not women and equated transgenderism with a mental illness (via Variety).
A particularly spicy dispute with another user on Twitter lasted for a while and reportedly involved transgender issues.
As a result of the debates, Notch was excluded from the celebration of Minecraft’s 10th anniversary. Microsoft went a step further.
Minecraft deletes (almost) all references to Notch
Until 2019, all versions of Minecraft still contained a reference to the original maker. Directly in the “Splash” when the game started, the phrases: “Made by Notch!” or “The Work of Notch!” could be found until then.
However, these were completely removed after the Twitter controversy. There is only a reference to the creator of Minecraft in the credits. Microsoft has never commented on this step, however.
Persson himself made a counterattack in 2021. After a crossover event of Minecraft with Sonic, the creator declared the game dead: “I don’t speak ill of the dead, but yes, Minecraft is a little dead. (If it still lives for you, cool! Rocket Arena 3 still lives for me as well.)” (via Twitter)
“I might make a game”
What Notch is doing today: After Notch temporarily deleted his Twitter account in 2020, he is now quite active again on the platform. He posts almost daily about video games or discusses various topics. Recently with quite bad puns about Christmas:
However, it’s mostly about games he is currently playing and enjoying or about various situations he has experienced. On January 1, he made a statement that he might be working on a game again.
Whether this actually happens or if he just said it as a joke remains to be seen. Because he has been making the same joke with a similar tweet for years. Notch’s last game is Cliffhorse, which was released in 2014. Since then, nothing new is known about projects – although after the deal with Microsoft, he presumably also wouldn’t have to work again with his wife and children.
Meanwhile, Microsoft likely wants to grow further. The historic deal with Notch was, if anything, just the beginning. Next on the corporation’s wish list is Activision Blizzard – to which Persson’s first employer in gaming, King, belongs:
