I think part of the reason they consider he is "betting" or "risking" his fortune, is because it probably has a lot more risks than a "simple investment". i.e. he's not taking his money and putting it in a Fidelity investment account, he's spending money to create a game that might very well not sell more than a few copies and not make the money back.

I guess people see him as "winning the lottery" with Braid, so now spending that "lottery money" is seen as a foolish move. However I think that spending/investing your hard-earned money in something you enjoy (developing games) is the best investment one can do, even if you do lose all your money.

At the same time it is sobering to learn that one of the more recent wildly successful indy games only made a few million at most.

I thought he hadn't made millions. I thought only notch had became truly rich w/ a single game?

IIRC Braid made a couple million. I think less than 10 though.

Minecraft, OTOH, made Notch over a billion dollars. So it depends on your definition of truly rich.