Markus Alexej Persson who is also known as Notch is a video game designer and programmer from Sweden. He founded the Mojang alongside Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh in the late 2010. His primary venture to founding Majong was Minecraft. It is a first person-and-box video game and it has garnered support and popularity since a tech demo in 2009. Minecraft is the reason why he has gained so much of notability within the video gaming industry.
Markus has won multiple awards and has got relations with the figure heads of the industry. He is the lead designer for Minecraft until it officially launched in 2011, after which he shifted his creative authority to Jens Bergensten. He left Majong after Microsoft had an acquisition with it.
Early Life
Markus was born on 1st June, 1979, in Stockholm situated in Sweden. He was born into a Swedish-finish (Sweden and Finland) family. Edsbyn was the place where he spent seven years of his life before moving to Sweden again. He would spend time building complicated designs with Legos. He once got hold of his father’s computer (128 in number), designed games and created programs on Indians and Cowboys.
He developed his first adventure game which was text-based, at a young age of eight, after experimenting with many type-in programs.
Family
His family suffered from drug abuse problems and turned their life into religious commune in Sweden.
Parents
His father Brigger Persson was a worker in the railway station while his mother Ritva Persson was a district nurse. Ritva remembers his son being very shy person and how he loved being on computer.
His father had drug related problems and could not keep his addiction at bay. He committed suicide in 2012 due to drugs and depression. Reportedly, he shot himself to death. Markus has fond memories with his father in the forest wilderness, snow clad mountains and a sled. His Finnish mother has done a lot of hard work to raise her child.
Sibling
He has a sister, Anna Hemming Froeberg, who, according to some websites, had drug addiction problem and ran away from home, when she was just a teenager. They are now in touch with each other. Anna has several tattoos on her body.
Marriage
Elin Zetterstrand was the girl, Markus got married to. They dated for four years before tying the knot in August 2011. She was popular as the Ez in the Minecraft games and was an ex-administrator for Minecraft forum. Unfortunately, the couple separated in the year 2012 due to reasons unknown. They got divorced within a year of their marriage. In 2012, Markus made an announcement that he was single. Elin’s brother Kristoffer Zetterstrand (Markus’ brother-in-law), is a Swedish Minecraft artist.
Children
He has a daughter named Minna Almina Zelda Zetterstrand.
Career
He joined as a game developer for an internet website in 2005 but left it in 2009, to work in Jalbum as a programmer for a couple of years. He founded Mojang AB in the year 2009. Minecraft has created suitable platforms for Androids, Playstation 4, Playstation, iOS, Xbox One, Vita, and Windows Phone. He had announced his second game 0x10 in 2012. It was a sandbox science fiction video game. But this project got shelved due to lack of concentration and interest. In 2014, he sold his company to Microsoft for 2.5 million dollars. Markus has a luxurious house in Beverly Hills which was bought for 70 million dollars.