'Minecraft' creator Notch says selling Mojang to Microsoft was about keeping his sanity

When rumors first spread that Mojang, the developer of "Minecraft," would be bought by Microsoft, many quickly looked at the studio's founder, Markus "Notch" Persson, for his rationale for the sale. Today, he's offering just that.

In his first public comments about the $2.5 billion Microsoft acquisition, Notch penned a post on his blog saying the deal was "not about the money," but about keeping his sanity.

"I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with," he wrote. "I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me."

Notch added that he plans to work on smaller projects now, and that if he makes something that becomes popular again, he'll "probably abandon it immediately."

Microsoft is only mentioned once in the post, with Notch saying "Minecraft" now belongs to Microsoft "in one sense," though he notes it "belonged to [fans] for a long time, and that will never change." Notch had previously been critical of Microsoft for Windows 8, saying the tech giant was "trying to ruin" the PC as an open platform. Prior to that comment, Notch said Windows 8 would be bad for fans of indie games. In addition to Microsoft, Notch expressed disdain for Facebook, saying Mojang would not release "Minecraft" for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset as a result of its purchase by the social networking company.

Notch's blog post notes that some may see his decision to sell Mojang as something that "goes against a lot of what I've said in public," though he says the overall goal is not being viewed as a symbol for anything, such as indie gaming.

Source: Notch | Image via Microsoft