Here’s proof you don’t have to be one of the big boys in gaming to make millions: Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has made a personal fortune of $33 million from his indie hit Minecraft . And he has a sweet hat. Beat that.
The $33 million figure came up in a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ thread. Persson revealed that 800,000 Minecraft downloads had shifted at €9.95 ($14) while the world-building game was in alpha. A further million copies sold once it hit beta and had its price pushed to €14.95 ($22). The result? €23 million, or just over $33 million. All from a game that was developed for one week before going on sale.
Cool Swedish cucumber that he is, Persson isn’t freaking out and buying Learjets or ostrich feather undies. He just blots it out of his mind: “It all ends up in an account somewhere, and I try not to look at it. I get a normal salary these days for day to day stuff, but there’s a big pile somewhere. Paypal takes a cut, there are taxes, and such, but it’s still a huge wad of money.”
I can’t begrudge Persson a cent of that dough because (a) he seems like a top-drawer guy and (b) it’s actually heartening to see an indie dev cracking the big-time.
[ Reddit , via Gamasutra ]
