Minecraft Designer Gives $3 Million To Employees

Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of indie sensation Minecraft, racked up a whole lot of karma this week. He announced that he's giving away his personal earnings from last year to his employees at Mojang.

"Before tax, my dividends from Mojang for 2011 was about three million dollars," Notch tweeted. "I chose to distribute that to the other employees."

The Stockholm-based developer's website says that they currently have 25 employees. Assuming Notch kept a share for himself, that would mean that each employee received $120,000 through this gesture. Not a bad bonus.

Mojang released the full PC version of Minecraft last year, along with a "Pocket Edition" for Android and iOS devices. To date, the game has sold over 5.1 million copies. An Xbox 360 version with Kinect support is currently in development at 4J Studios.

To reply to the inevitable trolls: yes, the enormous success of Minecraft makes Notch's generosity easier. Let's face it, though: there are a lot of companies making money hand over fist that don't reward their employees in this manner. I hope people keep that in mind when they're considering pirating Minecraft or any of Mojang's other future games.