The day we thought would never come did just that last month when Minecraft officially 'released', finally leaving it's long lived Alpha and Beta status behind. However a released game is not a finished game, and Minecraft is still far from finished.

To that extent, Notch has announced that he is stepping down as the lead developer on the game with his former co-developer Jens Bergensten will be taking over, with Notch promising not to pull rank.

You can read a little more about it on Notch's blog. He will be taking this time off to rest and then begin work on a new game, presumably Scrolls.