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Markus Persson

Markus Persson
Persson at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born
Markus Alexej Persson

(1979-06-01) 1 June 1979 (age 45)
Stockholm, Sweden
Other namesNotch
Occupations
Years active2004–present
Notable workMinecraft
TitleFounder of Mojang Studios
Spouse
Elin Zetterstrand
(m. 2011; div. 2012)
[1][2]
Children1

Markus Alexej Persson (/ˈpɪərsən/ PEER-sən, Swedish: [ˈmǎrːkɵs ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn] ; born 1 June 1979), also known as Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is the creator of Minecraft, which is the best-selling video game in history. He founded the video game development company Mojang Studios in 2009.

Persson began developing video games at an early age. His commercial success began after he published an early version of Minecraft in 2009. Prior to the game's official retail release in 2011, it had sold over ten million copies. After this point Persson stood down as the lead designer and transferred his creative authority to Jens Bergensten. 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. He left Mojang in November of that year, selling his company to Microsoft reportedly for US$2.5 billion. The acquisition made Persson a billionaire.

Since 2016 several of Persson's posts on Twitter regarding homosexuality, race, and transgender rights issues have caused public controversies. In 2019, his posts 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. In 2015, he co-founded a separate game studio called Rubberbrain, which was relaunched in 2024 as Bitshift Entertainment.

  1. ^ Peisner, David (7 May 2014). "The Wizard of Minecraft". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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