Featured Image Credit: BradleyKellard/X
Everyone always says that money can't buy happiness and one clear example of that is the life of Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, as his life turned into lonely 'isolation' after Microsoft's acquisition made him a billionaire.
It would have seemed an impossibility when it first came out in 2011 but indie sandbox survival building experience Minecraft has since become the undisputed best selling game of all time.
In the near 15 years since its release it's managed to sell at least 350,000,000 copies - around 140 million more than the next highest - and is available to play on just about anything that can boot up a game.
It's popularity has even spawned a recently released film, which broke records of its own through the help of an absurd cinema trend and a chart-breaking song, but the success of Minecraft has seemingly come at a cost to its creator.
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Markus Persson, otherwise known by 'Notch', developed the early stages of Minecraft almost entirely on his own, before hiring a small team of around 40 employees to make up the game's development studio Mojang.
Around three years after the game's full release Minecraft was selling 15,000 copies a day with incredible success, but the business side of the company appeared to weigh down on Notch as it seemingly consumed his life.
Shared by Bradley Kellard on X, Notch semi-seriously posted on social media in 2014: "Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life?"
Understandably many companies saw this as the perfect opportunity to claim a game that was continuing to grow its already massive player base, yet it was Xbox creator and PC giant Microsoft that managed to quickly strike a deal, acquiring Mojang and Minecraft for a staggering $2,500,000,000 sum.
Due to his significant shares in the company Persson managed to walk away with around $1,600,000,000 after taxes, yet just a year later he revealed why this life-altering amount of money actually made his life worse.
As reported by Yahoo! Finance, Notch described the 'isolation' that came with his riches, even after outbidding Beyoncé and Jay Z for a record-breaking $70 million mansion in Los Angeles.
On August 29, 2015, Notch took to social media with a string of tweets that revealed quite how difficult his life of luxury had become, illustrating the loneliness that his billionaire status had afforded him.
The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
— notch (@notch) August 29, 2015
"The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying," Notch explained, "and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance."
Another tweet recounted: "Hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated."
Notch even details the difficulties of finding what to do while everyone else is at work or with their families, reciting how he would 'watch his reflection in the monitor', alongside a reveal that employees of Mojang "all hate me now."
People who made sudden success are telling me this is normal and will pass. That's good to know! I guess I'll take a shower then!
— notch (@notch) August 29, 2015
He ended the tweet chain by writing that "people who made sudden success are telling me this is normal and will pass. That's good to know! I guess I'll take a shower then!"
He has since become embroiled in controversy for troubling social media statements in the years following the tweet chain, and Minecraft even removed all references to Notch in-game, and he only recently called out the aforementioned film adaptation, claiming that he was not involved and 'didn't want to be'.
