The creator of Minecraft Markus "Notch" Persson leaves Mojang. Farewell letter

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

I'm leaving Mojang.

I do not see myself as a real game developer. I program games because I enjoy it, because I love games and I love programming, but when I do this, I do not plan that my games will become megahits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft became such a hit, and people tell me that after it the world of computer games will never be the same. I never wanted this. Of course, this attitude flatters me, and it was quite interesting to be a celebrity.

For quite a long time 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 by trying to create something very large again, and since then I decided to focus on small prototypes and interesting tasks. From this work, I got great pleasure. I felt a little ill at ease in Mojang, where people did a real serious job, but continued to be part of the company, as I was told that my presence is important to corporate culture.
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A few weeks ago, I was at home with a bad cold when the internet exploded with 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 wrote this tweet . A little later, I caught sight of this video with the story of Phil Fish , and I realized that I don’t have that connection with my fans, which I thought I had. I turned into a symbol. But I didn’t want to be one, I didn’t want to be responsible for something huge, which I don’t understand, which I don’t work on, but that requires attention again and again. I am not an entrepreneur. I am not an executive director. I am a fanatical programmer, a “nerd” who likes to speak frankly 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, by chance, I again do something significant, I will most likely immediately refuse to participate in it.

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

I understand that my act goes against much of what I said in public. I have nothing to say. I also understand what has become for many of you a symbol of some kind of struggle. This is not true. I am a man, 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, he has belonged to all of you for a very long time, and always will be.

It's not about the money. The point is in my ability to maintain a sound mind.