Markus Alexej "Notch" Persson (born June 1st, 1979) is a Swedish video game programmer and designer best known for creating sandbox video game Minecraft and for founding corresponding video game company Mojang in 2009.
Persson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a Finnish mother and Swedish father.[1] He began programming at age seven on his father's home computer, and made his first game at age eight.[2] He married Elin Zetterstrand in 2011 and one daughter[3] before their divorce in 2012.[4]
Persson is an atheist. He is a member of the Pirate Party of Sweden[5] and high-intelligence organization Mensa.[6]
Persson is a victim of cancel culture, and was disavowed by Microsoft, the current owners of Mojang and Minecraft, due to political views expressed on his Twitter account. Persson had said in 2017 that feminism was a "social disease", calling most feminists "overtly sexist towards men". He also referred to feminist game developer and GamerGate target Zoë Quinn as a "c*nt",[7] and stated support of a Straight Pride day, saying opponents of the idea "deserved to be shot". Later that year, he tweeted the phrase "It's ok to be white" and called privilege a "made up metric". In 2019, updates to Minecraft removed every mention of Persson from the game except the credits, and he was not invited to the tenth anniversary event of the game, despite the fact that he created it.[8]