Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has deleted his Twitter account after getting into a disagreement with gaming journalist Mark Brown, better known for the YouTube channel Game Maker’s Toolkit. Ever since Notch sold Mojang and Minecraft to Microsoft for a massive $2.5 billion, he has become notorious for making controversial comments on Twitter regarding topics such as gender, race, and sexuality.
The quarrel stemmed from Brown tweeting about his dislike for advertisements on his videos, particularly those related to politics. Notch, who founded Mojang Studios and developed Minecraft in 2009, voiced his displeasure at Brown and asked him to “Drop the politics.” The two have struck a deal where Brown will divert from political discussion and Notch will delete his Twitter account.
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Notch justified the drastic action of deleting his Twitter account as “One small step towards the old internet.” Regardless of whatever the “old internet” is supposed to be and whether it can ever come back, Notch has proven to be one of the most prominent figures in modern internet culture positively through Minecraft and negatively through his social media presence. The Swedish native most infamously had a Twitter meltdown directed at developer Zoe Quinn of Gamergate infamy and has made multiple other statements that could be construed as racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic.
The deterioration of Notch’s public image has led to both Microsoft and Mojang to distance themselves from him as much as they can. A March 2019 Minecraft update removed references to Notch from the game’s menu, though his name is still present in the credits.
While Microsoft did not make any public statement regarding that particular update, they did say that Notch’s views “do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang” in response to not inviting him to Minecraft‘s tenth anniversary event. As evidenced by Notch’s name still being in the game’s credits and various pieces of Minecraft-related media, Microsoft and Mojang will never be able to fully disassociate themselves from him whenever his name comes up in the news.
It is unknown what Notch, who currently resides in Beverly Hills, California, will do without his Twitter account or if he will go back on his word and come back to the social media platform. The Swedish developer and designer’s last project was space exploration title 0x10c, which was indefinitely postponed in 2013.
Minecraft is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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