The creator of “Minecraft” isn’t allowed to participate in the game’s 10-year anniversary celebrations, Microsoft says.
“His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of ‘Minecraft,'” a Microsoft representative told Variety on Monday.
The 10-year anniversary celebrates the launch of “Minecraft” as a playable game. It entered what is known as “alpha” – a software development jargon term that refers to the first usable form of software – on May 17, 2009. Microsoft is hosting an event to celebrate the upcoming anniversary, and says Persson isn’t welcome.
Neither Persson nor Microsoft immediately responded to Business Insider’s request for comment on Persson’s exclusion from the event.
The “comments and opinions” Microsoft referenced in its statement largely come from Persson’s Twitter account, @notch.
His statements range from being critical of “Minecraft” to supportive of conspiracy theorists. In some instances, he’s made offensive statements about trans people. In other instances,he’s said things like, “If you’re still on the left, PLEASE wake up. You are evil.”
Persson has also spent a lot of time defending whiteness. “It’s ok to be white,” Persson said in November 2017. “There clearly is an agenda against white men,” he wrote in December 2018.
For these comments, among others, Microsoft seems to be distancing Persson’s creation from its creator: the company notably removed mentions of Persson from its main screen earlier this year.
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