Markus Persson

Stockholm, from 2009. Persson wrote the first version of Minecraft alone in his spare time and sold it directly to players online while it was still unfinished, so he needed no publisher or investors. Revenue from those early sales funded Mojang, founded with Jakob Porsér and Carl Manneh, and Sweden's strong game development scene supplied staff. Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014; his later public comments led Microsoft to distance itself from him.