Microsoft is now the owner of Minecraft, and its creator Markus “Notch” Persson is relieved that the franchise he built is out of his hands. When news broke that Microsoft was finalizing the deal to take over Mojang, many were a bit puzzled as to why Persson would let go of something that has such a huge user base.
Perhaps the $2.5 billion which Microsoft agreed to pay for Persson’s company had something to do with his decision to step away, but apparently the issue between he and his fans was much more than that. According to Persson, it was not about the money, but rather it was because he did not want to deal with the politics of running a successful company. A prime example of this, and perhaps the one in which Persson felt the most resentment, was when his company amended the Minecraft’s end-user agreement (EULA) so that popular servers can’t charge players for certain perks.
This decision ultimately caused a huge backlash against Persson’s studio, Mojang. Persson claimed that he was not aware of any of this disagreement as he was away on sick leave for a couple weeks. Information travels fast in the digital age and so when he flipped on the computer the Minecraft community was in his face about his company’s decision, which Persson took it as “hate” against him. Instead of tackling and resolving the issue like CEO, Persson decided to just step away from it all and go back to his roots as a “nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”
Persson will remain with Mojang until the deal with Microsoft finalizes, a deal in which he will walk away with over 70% of the $2.5 billion.
