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It's not about the money. It's about my sanity, says a departing Notch

Minecraft founder is 'not a symbol'

It's not about the money. It's about my sanity, says a departing Notch

Microsoft's $2.5 billion purchase of Minecraft developer Mojang has been closely followed by the announcement that its creator Markus 'Notch' Persson is leaving.

A larger-than-life figure, he's generated controversy in the past with his opinions - notably withdrawing his support for the Oculus VR hardware following its purchase by Facebook.

Indeed, in his leaving blog post, he noted past contrary statements, saying:

"I'm aware this goes against a lot of what I've said in public.

"I have no good response to that. I'm also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I'm not. I'm a person, and I'm right there struggling with you."

Conscious decoupling

Indeed, it's clear that the growing global success of Minecraft has been a burden for its creator for a number of years.

"A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development," Notch states.

"I wanted to try to do new things", adding "I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I've had so much fun with work.

"I wasn't exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed."

I am not a number

Even so, his position as the creator of Minecraft has continued to be a distraction; something he can now leave behind.

"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."

Of course, some will point out that's easy to say given his wealth - now counted in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (No doubt, the Swedish tax man is as happy as he gets, today.)

Notch is having none of it, of course.

"It's not about the money. It's about my sanity," he ends.

[source: Notch]


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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.