It's almost 10 years since the very first alpha built of Minecraft was released to the public and Microsoft is planning a big anniversary celebration around it. It will be hosting a special press event at Mojang's Stockholm-based studio on May 17, the official 10 year anniversary, that will take a look back at the game's development, its history, and the exciting future ahead of it.
One notable exception to this, though, will be Markus "Notch" Perrson, who Microsoft has confirmed will not be attendance.
Notch was the original creator of Minecraft, taking the Infiniminer concept from Zachtronics, he added some survival and crafting elements to it and created a monstrous hit which he sold millions of copies of, before selling the IP and his studio, Mojang, to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Since then he's been rather a lost soul, creating some minor coding projects that haven't gone anywhere and espousing his particular brand of politics on social media. While you can agree with his rants or not, Microsoft has taken the stance that he isn't the family friendly face that it wants for Minecraft in 2019 and it's made steps to distance it from him.
Just last month it removed references to Notch from the in-game home screen, though left his name in the credits and now he won't be invited to the game's major anniversary.
When asked by Variety about the celebration and Notch's potential involvement, a Microsoft spokesperson said: "His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft."
