Indie?

[lokinrond713]

How do people believe Minecraft is still indie? I mean, when you have t-shirts in JCPenny uv obviously sold to a larger corporation or are now some indie nobody who has a 3rd world factory to make some custom Ts....yeah thats right.....definetetly just some custom tshirts...in major retail stores...sure....

[gunner_recall]

Just because something is in a mainstream store doesn't mean it's not Indie. It only becomes mainstream when it becomes so popular that even people who don't like it associate with it unironically instead of ironically.

[Jester Joe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_game

Popularity has nothing to do with it honestly.

[Mormolyce]

Isn't it all still written by one guy? That's about as indie as it gets.

[Dhrizzle]

How do people believe Minecraft is still indie? I mean, when you have t-shirts in JCPenny uv obviously sold to a larger corporation or are now some indie nobody who has a 3rd world factory to make some custom Ts....yeah thats right.....definetetly just some custom tshirts...in major retail stores...sure....

Being an Indie studio means you are independent from the larger publishers. It's possible to license your IP to t-shirt companies without selling your company or affiliating with other video game companies.

[Keile]

It is an indie game as it is independently developed and published. That's all that is needed to be an indie game.

Once you move on and get a big publisher behind you (*sigh* like the scourge of gaming, EA) you are no longer Indie.

Thankfully Notch is smart enough to never do that. I get the feeling he'd rather close Mojang down than sell out to someone like EA (especially after his comment about what will happen if they ever go 10 years without pulling a profit).

[Fuzzzie]

To be fair, Mojang and Minecraft is a one in a million thing. There are thousands of games that barely get noticed or only achieve a small amount of success. I can't think of another indie title that was as successful (maybe doom on PC but that's still not even close).

I'm rather surprised that a large publisher hasn't commissioned a title that apes Minecraft. There are other indie titles that use the formula, but nothing from major studios.

[xcat]

Notch himself said he doesnt feel like an indie anymore. So if the creator says its not I would have to go with that. (not that the indie/not indie argument matters, I mean I dont care what it is as long as its good)

[eddow]

It was once created indie, but turned into a multi-million dollar company. That's how the world works. Start low, grow big.