Microsoft has taken the long-expected step to remove most references to original game creator, Markus "Notch" Persson from Minecraft, five years after it purchased all rights to the game and his Studio, Mojang, for a cool $2.5 billion. Although Persson's name is still mentioned in the credits as lead designer and creator of Minecraft, his reference on the splash screen that read "Made by Notch!" and "The Work of Notch!" are now gone.
Notch has proved to be a controversial figure for a variety of reasons throughout his short but storied game development career. He created Minecraft in 2009 to much acclaim, quickly selling millions of copies throughout the game's Alpha and beta period. He helped pioneer the Early Access model of raising prices gradually throughout a game's development as it approached a final release. However, he received criticism throughout Minecraft's creation for its similarities to Infiniminer, which it based much of its basic building mechanics and voxel-generation on.
Notch would go on to receive further critique when he sold Mojang to Microsoft, having been a major critic of Oculus VR founder, Palmer Luckey's sale of his company to Facebook just a few months before. Since leaving Mojang though, Notch has been the subject of much derision for his increasingly antagonistic social media presence. After purchasing a $70 million home and publicly discussing his inability to find much purpose now that he had everything he could ever want, he has railed against political correctness, LGBT issues, and what he sees as some form of feminist agenda and its persecution of people like him.
This received a lot of push back from the gaming and social community, pointing out how he has enjoyed many a privilege throughout the years. Others highlighted the hypocrisy of playing victim when you embody the kind of success story that many dream of having in their own lives.
Microsoft appears to have finally decided to further distance Minecraft from the man due to these outbursts. He'll likely remain in the credits for good, but outside of that, Microsoft clearly wants to move on from the divisive figure.
