In December 2014, a Java programmer bought a mansion in Beverly Hills, California, for $70 million in cash, setting a sales record at the time.
The 2,000-square-meter mansion has a huge glass curtain wall overlooking Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.
The owner of the mansion is called Persson, who just sold his game to Microsoft for $2.5 billion and became a billionaire.
This game called Minecraft is developed in Java, the interface is quite rough, and there are no clear levels and goals. It is to collect and build continuously in a barren virtual world, occasionally encountering wandering zombies and giant monsters trying to kill players. spider.
However, Minecraft is like a virtual Lego world, with infinite openness, attracting countless players from all over the world to explore and build. As of 2021, it has sold more than 238 million copies, and its monthly active players are close to 140 million, making it the best-selling game in history. video games.
How did Persson develop such a game in the first place? Why did you choose Java again?
1
Persson is a Swede and spent his childhood in a rural town three hours away from the capital Stockholm.
There are large forests and lakes, and many scenes can be found in later Minecraft.
(real picture)
(Minecraft scene)
While other kids played soccer in the summer and ice hockey in the winter, the introverted Persson stayed home, playing with Legos for hours on end (which may have had a major impact on his future development of Minecraft).
When Persson was 7 years old, his father bought him a Commodore 128 computer (the same series as Musk's first computer), with many small games on it, and he was immediately fascinated. Years later, I learned to program on it.
Many parents now regard games as a scourge. In the early years, many great gods started playing games, such as the father of Linux, the father of MySQL, Musk...
They were not satisfied with the existing games, so they started to create their own games and embarked on the road of programming.
I think there is an important reason here. Early computers (like the Commodore) were very simple, and couldn't do much except play simple "character-type" games, but this is a machine that can accept human programming instructions, and is controlled by human beings. controlled machines. Children who are interested in this aspect can easily start to fiddle with computers and fall in love with programming.
Today's computers are different. They are very powerful and are an entertainment artifact. Games and short videos are so attractive that it is easy for children to fall into it. Few children learn programming just to play games.
Persson's family was unfortunate. His parents divorced when he was 12, his father started drinking and his sister took drugs and eventually ran away. In this environment, he dropped out of high school without graduating.
Fortunately, his mother insisted that he take programming courses, and his childhood hobby was maintained. Persson began to learn to make games and began his creative path.
2
In 2004, the 24-year-old Persson found a good job as a programmer developing games at King.com (the company that developed Candy Crush).
However, the restless Persson started to plan his own game outside of work, which made the boss very unhappy: we pay employees, not let them build their own companies!
So Persson left his job and found Jalbum, a company that developed an online photo sharing service. Jalbum didn't mind his amateur game development, anyway, it didn't conflict with the company's main business.
Since he liked Lego as a child, the games he developed are similar to Lego. Players collect resources such as wood and stones to build things, from axes and shovels to houses and cities. This game is Minecraft.
He chose his favorite Java language, and did not use game engines such as Unity, and completely used "original" OpenGL to achieve graphics effects.
To be honest, the code of Minecraft is not very well written, because Persson was originally writing for fun, not thinking of making a lot of money, let alone becoming a popular game all over the world.
This is the same as many projects (such as Facebook). The author quickly tinkered with his interest, and then grew wildly. Technology gave way to business. As long as it can occupy the market, it doesn't matter if the code is poor.
In the end, it became a code mountain that no one can shake. A company with strong engineering capabilities like Facebook has nothing to do with the PHP code accumulated in the early days. It can only find a way to compile PHP into C++ to increase the speed.
3
Although Persson is an introvert in the real world, by becoming Notch online, he began to communicate in depth through various blogs, forums, Twitter and Minecraft fans, and eventually became a super Internet celebrity, on Twitter There are more than 3 million fans on the Internet.
Various gaming communities and forums began to emerge, players provided video tutorials, and opened podcasts to tell their adventures. Minecraft is not just a game, but a platform.
Minecraft went viral without spending a dime on marketing.
In 2009, Minecraft sold 20,000 copies, and in 2010, that many were sold in one day.
By the end of 2012, the company had sales of about $230 million and a gross profit of over $150 million, which is pretty amazing considering it's a small company of 30 people.
More than 100 venture capitals swarmed in. Sean Parker, the billionaire who invested in Facebook, even took Persson and others away on a private plane for negotiation, but Minecraft was too profitable, and he rejected all the investments.
In this regard, Minecraft, much like JetBrains, has not raised any funding since its inception. Survive entirely on the sales income of excellent products, and live a particularly nourishing life.
4
Despite his successful career, Persson's family life was unhappy. His father committed suicide after a long battle with depression, and his own marriage lasted only a year.
In June 2014, Minecraft revised its user agreement to prohibit players from charging others for certain game features.
Burned out, Persson decided to sell Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.
Persson, who has stepped into the ranks of billionaires, began to let himself go, buying a mansion, more than a dozen sports cars, and life-size Transformers.
He spends money like water in Las Vegas, and it is said that one night of partying will cost $100,000.
On Twitter, Persson said he was "extremely lonely, unmotivated, and unable to form meaningful relationships with others" and "meet a wonderful girl, but was afraid of my life style and walked away with a normal person."
He complains that even his old friends in Sweden don't have time for him, he has to sit there and watch his own shadow.....
Since 2017, Persson has made many controversial remarks (sexism, color discrimination), which have been fiercely criticized by the public.
On Minecraft's tenth anniversary, Persson's name was wiped from a software update, and Microsoft didn't invite him to the celebration.
The father of Minecraft can only send a blessing on Twitter:
(over)
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