The studio behind Minecraft brought in just under $100 million in profits in 2012, according to GamesIndustry International. That's a lot of money for Mojang, the 25-person studio founded by Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson. And it's a lot of money for Notch, who told Reddit he grew up relatively poor.
"Now, all of the sudden, as a result of how modern society works, I managed to somehow earn a shit-ton of money," he wrote. "I still like playing games and programming, and once I had the latest computer and consoles, there really isn't much more to spend the money on than traveling. I might eventually get a driver's license so I can buy a car."
Mojang CEO Carl Manneh told Reuters that the money is more than enough. Mojang has turned down dozens of buyout offers and other investment opportunities in favor of remaining independent.
"We are living the dream, really," Manneh said. "An exit would be huge, but do we really need that money? In our case, we have the cash flow. We have more money than we need."
Minecraft is still going strong, with more than 15 million sales across PC, mobile, and Xbox 360 throughout 2012. Mojang's future products include card-based strategy game Scrolls and Notch's own simulated-space-computers project, 0x10c.
