Markus Notch Persson - H 2015
AP ImagesYou’ve just sold your blockbuster videogame to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. What next?
If you’re 35-year-old Swedish programmer Markus Persson — known to friends and fans of his build-a-world game Minecraft as Notch — you plunk down $70 million for a brand new mansion in what is being called the priciest house sale in Beverly Hills history. The chunky young billionaire had some hefty competition: No less than Jay-Z and Beyonce had toured the property on several occasions before Persson closed the deal just a week before Christmas.
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The 23,000-square foot estate was built on spec by Bruce Makowsky, who made a fortune selling handbags to the masses on QVC. Makowsky saw an opening in the real estate market for a home that could appeal to the ultra-rich, and set about creating the kind of cutting-edge playboy palace that Iron Man‘s Tony Stark might move into. The result, dubbed The Top of Hillcrest, was completed in September 2014 and put on the market for $85 million.
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The house has eight bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, each outfitted with a $5,600 toilet. A 54-foot curved glass door glides open to reveal an infinity pool and iPad-operated fountains. The house features a $200,000 “candy wall,” a “car turntable” – think Lazy Susan for your Lamborghinis – and back-lit walls of honeycomb onyx.
Persson took the house exactly as Makowsky staged it. So the Chanel and Yves St. Laurent fire extinguishers in the master bathroom, the replica of James Dean‘s motorcycle, the 18-foot onyx dining table (featuring 24 Roberto Cavalli-designed place settings at $3,700 each), the leather sofa set by Bentley Home Collection, the custom glass billiard and foosball tables and the life-sized replica of Bumblebee — yes, the yellow Transfomer — now all belong to Persson.
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To celebrate, on Jan. 13 the gaming mogul threw a housewarming bash for the ages, where guests were coated in yellow goo (apparently that’s what rich people do) when they weren’t helping themselves to the vodka and tequila bars (a separate bar for each), the case of Dom Perignon (that came with the house) and those ceiling-high tubes of delicious candy. Dutch DJ Martin Garrix was one of the guests and made sure to document the good times at Hollywood’s most decadent home on his Instagram feed.
Notch’s House Party pic.twitter.com/hEFgarKZHZ
— G’Phwoar (@Auld_Da_Jim) January 14, 2015
