Mojang has now issued their own statement today about Microsoft buying their company, and the Minecraft game franchise, for $2.5 billion, confirming that the three founders of Mojang, including Minecraft's creator Markus "Notch" Persson, will now be leaving the development team they formed.
The statement said:
"Though it's too early to confirm which of us will continue working on Minecraft or other projects, we predict that the vast majority (if not all) Mojangstas will continue to work at Mojang for the time being. The founders: Notch, Carl (O. Manneh), and (H) Jakob (Porsér) are leaving. We don't know what they're planning. It won't be Minecraft-related but it will probably be cool.
The statement also offered a little more insight as to why Mojang was sold to Microsoft in the first place. It said:
"As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He's decided that he doesn't want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he's made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He'll continue to do cool stuff though. Don't worry about that."
It added that the company was impressed by Microsoft's support of Minecraft, stating, "We're confident that Minecraft will continue to grow in an awesome way."
What is your reaction to "Notch" and the other founders of Mojang leaving the company?
UpdateMarkus "Notch" Persson has now issued his own statement on his personal blog, stating that after he leaves Mojang he plans to work on small game projects from now on. He also commented about how selling Mojang to Microsoft could be thought of as contradicting some statements he has made in the past about supporting independent game development. He stated:
"I'm aware this goes against a lot of what I've said in public. I have no good response to that. I'm also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I'm not. I'm a person, and I'm right there struggling with you. I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can't be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it's belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change. It's not about the money. It's about my sanity."
Source: Mojang
