Minecraft’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, has deleted his Twitter account in a bizarre deal with a YouTuber who agreed to stop discussing politics if he did. Despite creating Minecraft, Persson hasn't been involved with its development in several years, having sold it to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014.
It goes without saying that Minecraft defined the future direction of the gaming industry. Since the game's sale to Microsoft, however, Persson hasn't had much to do with video games, instead becoming better known for making controversial pronouncements on social media. In the years after Minecraft's sale, Persson repeatedly made misogynistic, transphobic, and otherwise offensive comments on Twitter, eventually leading Microsoft to scrub his name from Minecraft.
The most recent news-making action by Persson has seen him deleting his very own Twitter account, as the result of a deal with YouTube content creator Game Maker’s Toolkit. It all began with a seemingly innocent commentary by Game Maker’s Toolkit, who shared his experience of enabling skippable ads on GMTK episodes. The content creator said on Twitter that he didn't feel the diminished user experience was worth the extra money the ads brought in, noting that some of the ads promoted President Donald Trump's reelection campaign. Persson quickly responded to the YouTuber’s statement, telling him to "drop the politics," to which Game Maker’s Toolkit jokingly agreed - if Persson deleted his Twitter account. It could’ve all ended right there, but unexpectedly, Persson agreed to the condition after ensuring that Game Maker’s Toolkit would indeed drop political commentaries.
Whether Game Maker’s Toolkit has taken the deal seriously remains to be seen. Persson, however, has really deactivated his Twitter page. Users have already started leaving sarcastic commentaries thanking Game Maker's Toolkit for his sacrifice and asking if he could force others to log off Twitter for good. As for Persson, he expressed the hope that a small step towards "the old internet" was made that day. It's not clear exactly what Persson meant by "the old internet," but one with one less voice loudly promoting hate could be a better internet indeed.
The situation doesn’t necessarily imply that Notch is gone forever, in part because Twitter policy provides users with a month-long opportunity to reactivate deleted accounts if needed. Not only that, but he could also return with a brand new profile, which won’t be a violation of his deal with Game Maker's Toolkit. Whatever is to come from the deal, it doesn't seem likely that Minecraft's creator is truly gone for good. After all, the whole situation arose when he went after a content creator unprovoked, and there seems to be no shortage of people he'd be ready to pick a fight with in the future.
Source: Game Maker’s Toolkit/Twitter