Mojang Studios

Mojang Studios (previously known as Mojang Specifications and Mojang AB) is a Swedish video game developer owned by Xbox Game Studios based in Stockholm. It was founded in 2009 by Markus Persson and is best known for its sandbox video game Minecraft.

History
Mojang was founded by Markus Persson, a Swedish video game engineer and programmer, in 2009. Following his graduation and a few years of working as a web developer, Persson created Wurm Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, with colleague Rolf Jansson in 2003. They used the name "Mojang Specifications" during the development and, as the game started turning a profit, incorporated the company in 2007. Persson left the project later that year and wished to reuse the name, wherefore Jansson renamed the company.

In May 2009, Persson began working on a clone of Infiniminer, a game developed by Zachtronics and released earlier that year. Persson reused assets and parts of the engine code from an earlier personal project and released the first alpha version, now titled "Minecraft" on May 17, 2009, followed by the first commercial version on June 13, 2009. In less than a month, Minecraft generated enough revenue for Persson to take time off of his day job and eventually quit in May 2010.

In January 2011, Minecraft reached one million registered accounts, as well as ten million six months thereafter. The continued success of the game led Mojang to start the development of a port for mobile devices. Due to the incompatibility of the game's Java-based framework with mobile devices, this version was programmed in C++. Another version, initially developed for the Xbox 360, was released by Scotland-based developer 4J Studios and was also programmed in C++.

For the full release of Minecraft, Mojang held MINECON, a dedicated convention event, in Las Vegas on November 18-19, 2011 with Minecraft being formally released during a presentation on the first day. Thereafter, MINECON was turned into an annual event. Following the full release of Minecraft, Persson transferred his role as lead designer for the game to Jens Bergensten in December 2011.

On September 15, 2014, Mojang announced that the company was being purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. It became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios, with the acquisition being finalized on November 6, 2014.

In May 2019, ten years after Minecraft's release, the original browser-based version of Minecraft (called "Minecraft Classic") was re-released for free. On May 17, 2020, Mojang announced its rebranding to Mojang Studios, aiming to reflect its multi-studio structure, and introduced a new logo. was later released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.