Markus Persson
Swedish video game programmer (born 1979) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Markus Alexej Persson (/ˈmɑːrkəs ˈpɪərsən/ ⓘ, Swedish: [ˈmǎrkɵs ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn] ⓘ; born 1 June 1979), also known as "Notch",[3] is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is best known for creating the sandbox video game Minecraft, which has since become the best-selling video game in history; and for founding the video game development company Mojang Studios in 2009. Persson is currently working on new games under the banner of Bitshift Entertainment.
Markus Persson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Persson at the 2016 Game Developers Conference | |
| Born | Markus Alexej Persson (1979-06-01) 1 June 1979 (age 44) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Other names | Notch |
| Occupations | |
| Known for | Creating Minecraft, founding Mojang |
| Spouse |
Elin Zetterstrand
(m. 2011; div. 2012) |
| Children | 1 |
Persson began developing video games at an early age, making games both professionally and for pleasure for much of his life. He achieved critical success upon the publishing of an early version of Minecraft in 2009. Prior to the game's official retail release in 2011, it had sold over ten million copies.[4][5] After this point, Persson stood down as lead designer and transferred creative authority to Jens Bergensten.[6]
In September 2014, Persson announced on his personal website that he had concluded he "[didn't have the connection to his fans he thought he had]", that he had "become a symbol", and that he did not wish to be responsible for Mojang's increasingly large operation.[7] Persson left Mojang in November of that year, selling his company to Microsoft for a reported US$2.5 billion.[8][9] As the majority shareholder, the acquisition made Persson a billionaire.
Since 2016, public criticism of several of Persson's Twitter posts in which he wrote of his beliefs that transgender women are not women, that the QAnon conspiracy theory is "legit", and that those critical of a heterosexual pride day "deserve to be shot", has arisen.[10][11] In 2019, Persson's tweets were censured by Microsoft, who subsequently removed mentions of his name from Minecraft (excluding one instance in the game's end credits) and did not invite him to the game's tenth anniversary celebration.[12][13]
In 2015, he co-founded a separate game studio called Rubberbrain,[14][15] which was publicly relaunched in 2024 as Bitshift Entertainment.[16][17]