Swedish programmer and game designer Markus «notch» Persson, best known for his work on Minecraft, has spoken about his new project, which he says will be a «spiritual successor» to his most successful game.
Swedish programmer and game designer Markus «notch» Persson, best known for his work on Minecraft, has spoken about his new project, which he says will be a «spiritual successor» to his most successful game.
Persson created the first working version of Minecraft in just a week in 2009. Nearly 15 years later and a $2.5 billion sale to Microsoft, Notch on X (Twitter) wrote that he had «actually announced Minecraft 2».
«I thought maybe people REALLY want me to make another game that’s very similar to the first one, and I’m enjoying working on games again. I don’t really care which game I make first (or even if I make more), but I know I’m going to make it, so I decided I was totally willing to give it a fair shot as a spiritual successor to Minecraft and run a poll about it,» the developer noted.
Persson added that such projects often fail, and he fears a similar fate will befall his new game. «I also value being a man of my word very much, so I intend to do this in a way that in no way tries to meanly encroach on the incredible work that the Mojang team is doing,» the Minecraft developer wrote in a post that negatively noted Microsoft’s contribution.
It is currently unclear how seriously Markus Persson’s latest claims can be taken. It is possible that his X (Twitter) account was hacked, as Persson’s recent posts seem strange. For example, in a post published an hour ago, which is now pinned to his account, notch admitted to having a «very small penis.»
I have a really small penis.
— notch (@notch) January 4, 2025
Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios in Sweden. The first version of the game was created by Markus Persson using the Java programming language. The game has been continuously updated and was released on November 18, 2011. Persson subsequently left Mojang and handed over control of the development to Jens «Jeb» Bergensten.
Over the course of 15 years, it has been ported to multiple platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various game consoles. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were acquired by Microsoft Corporation for $2.5 billion. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with over 300 million copies sold as of 2024; it has nearly 170 million monthly active players.
