Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus 'Notch' Persson and the Game that Changed Everything

by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson

In 2011, Markus Persson was a bored IT-developer in Stockholm. In the evenings, he toiled away on a labour of love: a game with a tiny but dedicated online following. It was called Minecraft and Markus released it to the world in early 2009. The game itself looks deceptively simple. It resembles a digital version of Lego – bricks stacked on top of each other, giving players a world where they build whatever structures their mind can conjure. A breath of fresh air compared to the industry giants’ shooter games. In the space of a few years, Minecraft has become one of the most astonishing success stories of the internet age, attracting millions of players and proving how a single great idea can topple empires in the digital, post-industrial world.

This is the story of the man behind the game. Here Markus opens up for the first time about his life. About his old Lego-filled desk at school, the first computer his father brought home one day and also about growing up in a family marked by drug abuse and conflict. But above all it is the story of the fine line between seeming misfit and creative madman, and the birth of a tech visionary.

• ISBN10: 0753555751
• ISBN13: 9780753555750
• Publish Date: 23 January 2014 (first published 5 December 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 July 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Virgin Books
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[adamfortuna]

Minecraft had one of the fastest rises in popularity of any game in history. The meteoric rise, as well as the team behind the phenomenon was always a mystery to me. The marketing strategy used for propagating Minecraft was one of the most interesting parts of this -- as that was how I learned about it initially as well. Rather than hiring a PR company, people would upload videos of their creations to Youtube, acting as both a way to learn about the game and as avenue for players to show off and build reputation.