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Markus Persson Leaves Mojang after Microsoft Sale

by Tony Polanco3

Markus Persson, better known as ‘Notch’, has decided to leave Mojang and Minecraft after selling both to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. He wrote about this in a personal blog post.

“I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world,” Says Persson. “Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either.”

He goes on to say that he became some sort of symbol and that he didn’t have the connection to his fans that he thought he did. He is referring to the negative responses from Minecraft users over a EULA agreement that disallowed server owners to sell in-game items that could affect gameplay. Persson didn’t understand this reaction and tweeted this in frustration:

He went on to say: “I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”

Persson now wants to work on small passion projects. He also says that if any just so happen to catch traction that he will most likely kill the project immediately.

While I can respect Persson for doing what his heart tells him and doing what he feels is best for him, it’s very easy for him to make this decision now that he’s rich. The people who are left behind at Mojang can’t just up and leave like he did or abandon projects if they become big. Yes, his intentions are admirable and leaving all of that success and money behind isn’t something most people would do but it isn’t like he’ll ever have to worry about money ever again. That’s just the truth.

We wish Persson luck on all of his future endeavors.

Considering normal life mundane, Tony prefers to spend most of his time absorbed in fictional worlds that stimulate his imagination. Tony is a geek through and through, and his love for Comic Books, Science Fiction, Heavy Metal, and Video Games knows no bounds. He uses his natural writing talent and communication skills to express to the world why it's awesome to live a geek-centric lifestyle. Former Senior Editor of STFUandPlay and Staff Writer for DualShockers. Current Executive Editor of this here site, Tony writes news, previews, editorials and is the host of the Throwdown, Throwdown your Questions and Spoiler Alert podcasts. Tony encourages the team to do their best by being all George Washington and getting bullet holes in his cape from leading by example. Tony also still dreams of being a superhero one day.