Minecraft man plans new studio after Valve & Bungie offers

The man at the centre of the Minecraft phenomenon has declined job offers at Valve and Bungie, opting instead to open his own independent development studio.

Swedish programmer Markus Persson, whose solo effort Minecraft is apparently returning up to $350,000, is now looking to form a new start-up venture.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t know how much work setting up a company would be when I started doing it,” Persson said on his blog.

“Most my time these days is taken up by meetings and lawyers, accountants, banks, potential partners, potential employees, and the occasional interview.

“All this non-development work will result in a much nicer working environment, with talented people helping out with development, an actual office, and a much better way to deal with support issues, bug reports and feature requests.”

He says he still has a few hours left in the day to look into Minecraft bug reports, and yet still is finding time to court likeminded developers to found the new – as yet unnamed – studio.

“The status right now is that we’re up to four people confirmed, and we’re talking to several people,” he said.

“We almost got an office, but [the estate agents] wanted us [to sign a three year lease], which seems a bit like a gamble for a startup. So we’re still looking for an office.”