The Improbable Rise of Minecraft

When Markus Persson was a teenager, a teacher asked him to think about his future. He responded with a jokey list "of things I wanted to accomplish before I was 30," he says. "The last couple of items were, 'Work as a game developer' and 'Become a millionaire.' "

He's a year late, but he can now put check marks alongside both. Persson, 31, is the lone developer behind Minecraft, a no-frills video game that has sold more than 1.75 million copies. If it hasn't quite reached the status of major hits such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has sold 14 million copies since its 2009 release, it also hasn't spent a dime on marketing. And unlike iPhone bestsellers such as Angry Birds, Persson's game hasn't enjoyed the distribution might of Apple or any other company.