MOL Stockholm - Minecraft inventor Markus Persson claims he’s ‘never felt more isolated’ since selling his company Mojang AB to Microsoft for £1.5 billion.
In a series of a downhearted tweets this morning, the Swede spoke of how he disliked his new-found wealth and felt unchallenged and empty. He wrote: ‘The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
‘Hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I’ve never felt more isolated. ‘In Sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor.’
Persson has a personal fortune of around £1billion, according to Forbes estimates. He launched the hit computer game Minecraft in 2009, in which players can build an entire world using retro-looking blocks.
But the 35-year-old said he no longer wanted the ‘responsibility’ of owning such a global success, and sold his development studio Mojang to US giant Microsoft.
Last year he said he wanted to ‘stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges’, adding: ‘I’ve become a symbol.
‘I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits. I can’t be responsible for something this big. It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.’
Like any 35-year-old who has suddenly found himself being one of the richest people in the world, Persson has spent lavishly and partied extravagantly.
One family friend who spoke to MailOnline in April said they hoped that he won’t buckle under the pressures of what such fame and fortune can bring.
Divorced after a year of marriage he has blown hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bars, casinos and nightclubs of Las Vegas. Persson has reportedly spent an eye-watering $180,000 [£112,000] in a single night.
And to celebrate the sale of 10 million ‘downloads’ of the game he treated the whole staff to a three-day trip of ultimate extravagance to Monte Carlo three years ago.
Whisked away by private jet, employees were driven around in sports cars when they were not drinking champagne and partying aboard a luxury yacht. Staff were also entitled to share in a £2 million bonus pot.
Before Christmas he out-bid pop star couple Jay Z and Beyonce to buy the most expensive mansion in Beverly Hills ever – an eight-bedroom modern-day palace in Los Angeles’ most exclusive district - for over £43 million [$70 million].