Life After ‘Minecraft’: ‘Minecraft’ Inventor Becomes A Lonely Billionaire
Minecraft inventor Markus Persson is living the life–he is a bachelor, a billionaire, and has all the time in the world in his hands. But it goes to show that money isn’t everything when he is seen taking his melancholy out on Twitter regarding selling Minecraft and being a lonely billionaire.
The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Inside the Minecraft game, Persson is Notch, known for his big mouth and his classic fedora. But in real life, Forbes got to know Persson as a rather polite and introverted individual that has always been aloof to press. Now that it’s been almost a year since Persson let go of Minecraft, selling Mojang AB—the Swedish company behind famous game Minecraft—it seems that this Minecraft genius has nowhere else to take his earnings to. He was seen this Saturday taking to Twitter his feelings of melancholy and possibly regret over letting go of his beloved brainchild, Minecraft.
Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I’ve never felt more isolated. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell minecraft again.
— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Digjitale reports that after Mojang AB handed Minecraft over to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion in cash, Persson became an overnight billionaire with a personal net worth of about $1.3 billion. What do you do when you have this much money? Last March, Persson was reported to have bought a $70 million mansion in Beverly Hills, California. This mansion was dubbed as the most expensive mansion ever sold in Beverly Hills, even coming with a special toothbrush made out of gold. How cool is that! But with all these luxury at his disposal, it looks like Persson is still unhappy. The deal with Microsoft started out with a single tweet from Persson, when he was down with the flu on the height of the outburst of Minecraft users regarding the Minecraft company’s enforcement of the new EULA.
Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life? Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig. — Markus Persson (@notch) June 17, 2014
In a matter of minutes, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive asking if Persson was serious about wanting to let go of Minecraft. In a matter of weeks, offers came in from various companies wanting to buy the company behind Minecraft: Electronic Arts, Activision, and others. A number of talks, reconsiderations, and realizations later, Minecraft was handed over to Microsoft and Persson is a billionaire. Now, he is a lonely billionaire. His old employees at his old Minecraft company seem to hate him now—probably the new management has got to do this—and even his love life is in jeopardy.
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.
— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Found a great girl, but she’s afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Craving for human contact and support, the Minecraft genius still found comfort in the millions of Minecraft fans that have built respect and affection for him throughout the years.
I really appreciate all the offers to hang and talk and all. As an introvert, new friends is hard to do even when fine, but it means a lot!
— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
And just venting and not feeling like I had to hide made it feel a bit easier to cope with already. ?
— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
[Image via Wikimedia Commons]