Markus Alexej Persson (Swedish: ['mar?k?s 'pæ???n] (listen); born 1 June 1979), better known as Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer.
He is best known for creating the sandbox video game Minecraft and for founding the video game company Mojang in 2010, alongside Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser. Persson's principal venture for founding Mojang was Minecraft which gained popularity and support since its tech demo in 2009.
Since then, he has gained significant notability within the video game industry, winning multiple awards and establishing relations with the industry's figureheads.
He retained his position as the lead designer of Minecraft until the game's official launch in 2011, after which he transferred creative authority to Jens Bergensten.
In November 2014, he left Mojang after its acquisition by Microsoft for $2.5 billion.
Microsoft eventually dissociated from Persson following comments on his Twitter account which faced criticism for accusations of being racist, homophobic, and sexist.