My world developers are billionaires, making up for lost time

March 5 News According to foreign media reports, Monday Night 7 o'clock, the sandbox game Minecraft (my World) developer Marcus Alexei (Markus Alexej Persson) sits on the balcony of the 9 floor office in Stockholm, Sweden, holding a vodka Red Bull. Three hours ago he promised not to drink anymore because he had not fully recovered from the Thursday evening binge, and he had an ear infection.

For the 35-year-old Swede, the most wonderful thing in the last five years has been to keep the pressure on the best-selling computer game he has created Minecraft. The definition of Minecraft as a game is too restrictive, Minecraft already has 100 million downloads and the number is rising. Players start in an empty virtual space, they will use Lego-like bricks (they call them minerals) to build whatever they like, and one of the distinguishing features of this game is that other players can interact with it. Most players are children who build basic houses or villages, and they can hold dances in buildings or avoid predatory zombies.

A truly obsessed adult player spends hours creating a replica of the original size of a city in a dead planet, the Empire State Building in New York, or the American drama Game of Rights. Google's search for Minecraft has surpassed the Bible, Harry Potter and Justin Bieber. The game now has a total income of more than 700 million dollars, most of which are pure profit.

"It's not just compared to other popular games, it's not just other hot products that are limited to games," he said. Ian Borgstedt, Professor Ian Bogost, of the video game at George's Institute of Technology in the United States. "Minecraft is equivalent to this generation of Lego and even the micro-computer of this generation. ”

In the virtual world, Poisson or his characters in the game Notch has become the millions player in the hearts of the gods, he was like the cosmic God Zeus established and clear the rules of the game. But Poisson himself is not a opinionated extrovert, and face-to-face he is very polite, outspoken and very private (he rarely speaks in the news media). As time goes on, the fans demand and expect notch to continue to develop, which he ultimately cannot afford. So three months ago, Minecraft sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in cash. His 71% stake in Minecraft game developer Mojang led him to become a billionaire overnight.

At this point, Poisson had to think about who he was, and the results weren't impressive, he was like a dog running after a car, and when he decided to buy a mansion at Beverly, he chose a 70 million-dollar 23000-square-foot super mansion. Then spent 180,000 dollars a night in Las Vegas's nightclub. He co-founded Jacob Bu Pol (Jakob porsér), co-founder of Mojang, to create a company called Rubberbrain in case they come up with a new game plan--and so far he can't concentrate on that.

Forbes interviewed him mainly about Minecraft and his life after the game was acquired. This is more important than the windfall to know that leaving Minecraft is the right choice. As for the reasons behind this, he quotes Leonardo da Vinci's words: Art will never end, only sublation (art is implies finished, only abandoned).

Minecraft's creative spirit originated in the vast Swedish forest between Stockholm and the Arctic Circle, a 4,000-man town called Esbine. Although other children play football in the summer or play early hockey in winter, introverted Poisson spends hours playing with his Lego. When he was 7 years old, his father bought a Commodore 128 computer home, and Poisson started computer programming at the age of 8. Although Poisson is a good student, but after his second-year family moved to Stockholm, his life seemed to get a little rough, he didn't make too many friends, the computer became his only playmate, he indulged in games such as the Diamond Boy (Boulder Dash) and the new ice-age legend (The Bard ' Tale). In the Autobiography of My World: The Unknown Story of Marcus Pearson and his changing game, the mother of Ritva recalls that his son often has stomach pains to hide at home and play computer games for hours.

Poisson's family collapsed at the age of 12 when his parents divorced, young he sought more solace in his computer, his father was drunk and addicted to amphetamines, and his sister started taking drugs and eventually ran away. Poisson did not finish high school unemployed at home, in the local hospital when the mother of night shift nurse asked him to go online programming courses, now seems to be a clear choice. Chasing the dream of childhood, Poisson began to launch the game. 2004 24-Year-old Poisson joined the "Candy Smash legend" distributor Midasplayer (renamed King.com at the end of 2005). There he met a good friend, the same introverted young developer Jacob Bu Pol color. "It's a good start," said Bo. "You can make all kinds of little games except graphics, and you can finish the rest of the game." "The two young people began to plan their own games, some of which were notorious on independent gaming sites. His boss is unhappy about it, "We feel we can't hire two employees who work for us and develop our company." "Lasse Mackeren, the Midasplayer co-founder of hiring Poisson, Lars Markgren, said.

2009 Poisson left Midasplayer and got a job as a programmer in the online photo-sharing service company Jalbum. He soon focused his spare time on the ingenuity of games in which players could collect resources, such as stones and wood, to build houses and cities. Name the game Minecraft and publish it as an unfinished software in the Tigsource forum in May 2009. The early players had to form a community to figure out the rules of the game because of the high reliance on technical knowledge and the lack of clear guidance.

Minecraft is not the first sandbox to build a game, nor is it the first game to challenge players to collect resources to survive in harsh environments. But it was a perfect time for a new generation of young people who played Facebook and Instagram too early, but already had the capital to play online games, most of them already had laptops, smartphones and tablets.

More than 400 PC users downloaded the game at $6 a day in June 2010. Poisson and Jalbum resigned their jobs and hired their former boss, Carl Manneh, CEO of Carl Manno, to run the business. They named the company Mojang, which means "gadgets" in the Swedish language. Minecraft's secret weapon is notch, which is not just a nickname, but also allows Poisson to show its introverted side of the real world. Through blogs, forums and Twitter, he answers fans ' questions about games, development and life every day. This personality transformation has led to a 2 million-person focus on Poisson's Twitter.

Poisson did not spend a penny on marketing, and Minecraft spread like a virus, Mojang has increased the Android and iOS smartphone versions of Minecraft, according to the mobile app market research company App Annie, So far Minecraft has been among the top three paid downloads in the US. May 2012 Minecraft released a new version of the Microsoft Xbox360 gaming platform, which sold 1 million copies in the first week (15 million have been sold so far). The concession agreement ensued. Minecraft T-shirt maker J! The NX issue of the theme T-shirts became the best-selling money for young fans, and the books on the game immediately became best-selling novels. The Egmont Publication International, which publishes only a handful of relevant subjects, has sold 7.5 million copies in more than 60 countries. Last year Warner Bros. signed a concession agreement with Mojang and was considering the possibility of a film adaptation.

Only 30 Qaeda employees ' Mojang earnings seem open-ended. At the end of 2012, sales were $230 million trillion, with a total profit of more than $150 million trillion-of which $110 million was in the pocket of Mojang's license to grant intellectual property rights, and he soon bought one of the most expensive apartments in Stockholm.

Investors are crazy about it. Manon said he had been negotiating with more than 100 VCs, including the Sequoia Capital of Silicon Valley in the US and the Accel company, but he never really considered accepting investment because Mojang didn't need it. The billionaire Parker (Sean Parker) also visited, and even took the Poisson, the wave color and the Manon in his private jet to London for a passionate night, but they still refused Parker's investment request.

"This is the first time we've taken a private plane," Manon said, but never the last. As a private enterprise without foreign investors, to celebrate 10 million of downloads, they took all their staff to Monaco for three days full of champagne, balls and yachts. Although the three-member owners hold all the shares, the 2012 award for all staff has accumulated as high as 3 million.

Even the world at his feet, Poisson still feel the responsibility is heavier than Mount Tai. After the official Minecraft of the first "my World" Enthusiasts ' Party (also known as Minecon), which was held in the second half of 2011, Las Vegas retired as the main developer but was prepared to consider new game ideas and start a new life with his girlfriend, He had a wedding with his girlfriend that summer.

However, the joy is always short-lived, the father of Poisson's suicide on Christmas Eve, his father has been struggling with drugs and depression. His father's death was a great blow to him, he began to muddle through every day, not knowing what the goal of life was, and a year later he divorced his newly married wife. He tweeted on Twitter: "Today I'm getting single again." Complex feelings, "after a short vacation after a return to work, he felt the pressure to create the Minecraft miracle again." At the same time, the Minecraft is still the endorsement of the notch, whether he from the day-to-day development of the second line, the fans are still linked to the object, whether it is about the new password modified mail, or about the game may be a tweet. However, some subtle changes have led to the emergence of satirical writings aimed at notch. Twitter responses to Poisson's tweets or any YouTube video commentary about Minecraft creators are rife with such statements, "I always think notch is a huge tool" or "notch is a fat loser." ”

"I don't always understand why people on the internet are so vicious," said Poisson. "You always have some nasty comments, and most of the time it's in capitals." "At this time the Poisson initiation retreat." Leaving is just a push. On the June 16, 2014, Poisson stayed in his home with a cold. At the same time, Minecraft users struggled against the company's decision to start implementing an end-user license agreement that prevented players from using certain game features, such as a sharper sword, to charge other players. Within an hour hundreds of tweets were pouring in, and Poisson was finally able to push the 126-word tweets that had been published on Twitter or could change his life. "Is there anyone who wants to buy my Mojang stake? So I can go on with my life? Trying to do the right thing and being hated is really not my forte. ”

Mojang's CEO, Carl Manno, was at home with his family when he saw the tweet. 30 seconds after he read the tweet, the phone rang. A Microsoft executive who worked with Mojang wanted to know if Poisson was joking. "I don't know, let me talk to him first." Manon replied. While Poisson originally wrote this tweet with half a jest, the man who had openly said he would not sell his efforts to other businesses seemed to have shaken his heart.

Over the next week, Manon's phone rang, from Microsoft, the American Art Company (Electronic Arts), the mobile-depending blizzard (Activision Blizzard) and other companies expressed their keen interest in the issue. The conversation with the dynamic blizzard is nothing. Poisson secretly said he would not talk about the conversation with EA, an American art company, but said Mojang would rule out potential buyers who "play games in ways we don't like". It's clear that Microsoft is qualified to qualify for this.

Microsoft's ultimate motivation is tax evasion. The software giant has 93 billion of dollars in overseas cash flow, but wants to go back to the US and have to pay high taxes. So Manon dictated the terms of sale: Three of the founding men wanted to leave the company altogether. Given that Microsoft has successfully placed a large number of employees after the acquisition of Nokia, Mojang does not need to lay off staff (Mojang only 47 employees, which should not pose any problems for Microsoft).

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox Department, Fille Spencer the deal with Manon. Poisson and the wave color were not consulted, but Spencer discussed the future direction of the game industry with a small restaurant in the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, had never dabbled in Scandinavia during the most Satia Nadra of his tenure, and he only called Manon two times to urge the takeover session to continue.

While lawyers are working around the clock, the billions of-dollar takeover is quietly taking place. Microsoft wants to keep a low profile, although Nadra in a July employee letter that he is investing in the gaming industry, and called it "in the world of mobile first, both from the time of investment and from the point of view of money, is the largest single amount." ”

Poisson remained silent on the matter. He's been thinking about the idea of a new game around the clock and learning programming languages. September 11 He described his work in a blog with a description of the language in dart, "If I did start to look at something new, I believe someone more patient than me would take over the project." I can't devote all my time to this thing. ”

September 15 Microsoft announced that it will buy Mojang 250 million dollars cash. A few hours after announcing the news, Poisson's blog detailing his impending departure from the company he created, "It's not about money, it's about my mind." "he wrote. Poisson recalls that he had expected Minecraft fans to react more badly to the takeover news. "On the day we announced the news, I was going to close my Twitter account because I didn't think I could handle the fans ' response." But people seem unusually ok about it, they patiently read my explanations and say ' Well, I hope you can take care of yourself. ’”

As for the takeover, which contradicts his earlier remarks that he would never sell his company, he shrugs that he feels the 2.5 billion-dollar paradox is acceptable. "Of course you have to be responsible for your words and deeds," said Poisson. "But I don't feel ashamed, I just changed my mind." "By contrast, majong employees cannot understand how their former bosses have made such a big shift. Although they received a bonus from the purchase of the loose cash (300 million dollars for the Manon tax and 100 million dollars after taxes), many people felt "disappointed" and "empty" after hearing the news. "We spoiled them and their actions hurt me," said Poisson, despite his efforts to start a new life. When the acquisition finally ended in November, Poisson, Manon and Manon's twin brothers went to Miami and Saint-Baz to celebrate.

In recent days, Poisson stopped paying too much attention to Twitter, and instead focused on the insults of good friends in the WhatsApp group they created. But Poisson has gradually matured to begin to rationally treat these problems. He said he had automatically turned on the mute mode on Twitter, which allowed him to block unfriendly users, and sometimes he would respond with curiosity. He was still not good at dealing with the people he liked, but was broadcasting his travels through Snapchat. As for girls, "I try to use friends to apply Tinder, but it doesn't work." This is worse in Sweden, with a total of only 4 users. ”

"I'm making up for the time I lost in programming when I was more than 20," said Poisson. "Having a ball is not a sensible way to spend money, but it's fun. We didn't have much money when we were young, so I thought that if I became a rich man, I'd be one of those boring rich people who didn't even know how to spend money. "Most of the time he's in the office of the new company, which contains all the fantasies of a teenager-a service bar and a DJ area and a secret room behind the bookshelf," he said.

Poisson doesn't seem to have much inspiration at the moment, and most of the time he just refreshes Twitter and Reddit in the office, "It's like an adult's day-to-day trusteeship," said Poisson. Every time a concept comes up, "I'll try it for a few days and finally go back to playing games." "Perhaps this stage will soon pass, but there may not be another one for the next generation of children to create the game they want, but he himself is happy with the status quo." "People have been discussing the concept of notch, like an ideal model." I recall when I met my idol and said, ' Oh my God, they are human beings who are real. The feeling of separation is so real. I thought I had this relationship with my fans, but unfortunately not. (Emily)