Minecraft

In 2011, Markus Persson was a bored IT-developer in Stockholm. In the evenings, he toiled away on a labour of love: a game with a tiny but dedicated online following. It was called Minecraft and Markus released it to the world in early 2009. The game itself looks deceptively simple. It resembles a digital version of Lego – bricks stacked on top of each other, giving players a world where they build whatever structures their mind can conjure. A breath of fresh air compared to the industry giants' shooter games. In the space of a few years, Minecraft has become one of the most astonishing success stories of the internet age, attracting millions of players and proving how a single great idea can topple empires in the digital, post-industrial world.

This is the story of the man behind the game. Here Markus opens up for the first time about his life. About his old Lego-filled desk at school, the first computer his father brought home one day and also about growing up in a family marked by drug abuse and conflict. But above all it is the story of the fine line between seeming misfit and creative madman, and the birth of a tech visionary.

About the Author

Linus Larsson and Daniel Goldberg are freelance journalists who write for several Swedish newspapers. They have been published in the Washington Post and American Computer World among other papers, and quoted by BBC News, the New York Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Their first book, Swedish Hackers, was published in 2011.