Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Persson leaves Mojang. Farewell letter

From a translator: On September 15, there was official confirmation that Microsoft was buying Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, for $ 2.5 billion. Mojang founder Marcus Persson (better known as Notch) leaves the company. Explaining his decision, Notch published a farewell letter in which he described the motives for his departure.

I'm leaving Mojang.

I do not see myself as a true game developer. I program games because I enjoy it, because I love games and I like programming, but when I do this, I do not plan that my games will become megahits, and I am not trying to change the world. Minecraft has become just such a hit, and people tell me that after it the world of computer games will never be the same. I never aspired to this. Of course, such an attitude flatters me, and I was quite interested in being a celebrity.

For quite some time now I moved away from the active development of Minecraft. Jens (Jens Bergensten) was the perfect candidate to replace me, and I wanted to do something new. I failed, trying to create something very large again, and since then I decided to focus on small prototypes and interesting tasks. I enjoyed this work a lot. I felt a little out of place in Mojang, where people did real serious work, but continued to be part of the company, as they told me that my presence was important for corporate culture.

A few weeks ago, I was lying at home with a severe cold when the Internet exploded in a flash of hatred towards me about the Minecraft license. I had nothing to do with this situation. I was confused and did not understand what was happening. In desperation, I wrotethis tweet . A little later I came across this video with the story of Phil Fish , and I realized that I do not have the connection with my fans that I thought I had. I turned into a symbol. But I didn’t want to be, I didn’t want to be responsible for something huge, which I don’t understand, which I don’t work on, but which requires attention again and again. I am not an entrepreneur. I am not an executive director. I’m a fanatical programmer, a “nerd” who likes to express himself openly on Twitter.

As soon as this transaction is finally closed, I will leave Mojang and return to participate in Ludum Dare and small web experiments. If suddenly by chance I do something significant again, I will most likely immediately refuse to participate in this.

Given that my image in the eyes of the public is already pretty distorted, I do not hope that my departure will help me avoid negative comments, but at least I will no longer feel obligated to read them.

I understand that my act is contrary to many of what I said in public. I have nothing to object to. I also understand that for many of you it has become a symbol of some kind of struggle. This is not true. I am a person, not a symbol, and in this struggle I am nothing more than an ordinary participant.

I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I cannot be held responsible for something so big. On the one hand, Minecraft is now owned by Microsoft. But on the other, much more important side, it has belonged to all of you for a very long time, and it always will be.

It's not about the money. The point is my ability to keep my sanity.