Is Mojang still Indie?

[Thespian42]

All this Bethesda legal business (which I won't get into here, as it's already proliferate in the forums) got me thinking about a few people who were accusing Bethesda of picking on a small indie developer.

This got me thinking: what does it mean to be "indie" in the game dev scene? It can certainly be said that early in the development of Minecraft, Notch was an indie developer. He was making a game, by himself, with relatively few resources for fun.

As Minecraft exploded (and boy did it ever explode), so too did the development team and framework of business. As it stands now, Mojang has people for business, several people working on development of several games, a respectable office, and enough liquid capital to power a third-world country made entirely of fish.

So I ask you this: Has Mojang evolved from indie developer to small regular developer? Is there a significant difference, and what is it?

 

[darkfire613]

Even Valve is an indie developer. The distinction is they aren't signed to a major publisher like EA or Activision; they make and publish their own games.

 

[Laser Priest]

As long as they're not funded by another major game company or publisher, I think they are indie by definition.

 

[Irridium]

It is an indie developer. And privately owned business is "indie". This means Mojang is indie, Valve is indie, Bungie is indie(and I know they signed a publishing deal with Activision. Bungie is still owned by it's heads, so it is still independent), and any other development studio that is privately owned, no matter how big or small, is independent.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

The term indie derives from 'independent'. The size your company is irrelevant. Mojang is developing, marketing, and publishing everything internally, without the assistance of first-party companies (like Sony or Microsoft), or larger publishing firms (Like Square Enix or Electronic Arts). Mojang is indie. It is like to always be. It'll just be a bloody rich indie developer.

 

[redisforever]

Even Valve is an indie developer. The distinction is they aren't signed to a major publisher like EA or Activision; they make and publish their own games.

Actually, Valve is signed with EA. EA sells their games in stores.

OT: Yes, no publisher, and they actually maintain contact with fans. Never seen that with bigger companies.

 

[Stall]

"Indie" is sort for "independent," meaning that everything involved with the game takes place within that studio, and that studio does not receive outside funding from other companies or larger publishers. The size of a company has nothing to do with being "indie".

 

[FallenTraveler]

All this Bethesda legal business (which I won't get into here, as it's already proliferate in the forums) got me thinking about a few people who were accusing Bethesda of picking on a small indie developer.

This got me thinking: what does it mean to be "indie" in the game dev scene? It can certainly be said that early in the development of Minecraft, Notch was an indie developer. He was making a game, by himself, with relatively few resources for fun.

As Minecraft exploded (and boy did it ever explode), so too did the development team and framework of business. As it stands now, Mojang has people for business, several people working on development of several games, a respectable office, and enough liquid capital to power a third-world country made entirely of fish.

So I ask you this: Has Mojang evolved from indie developer to small regular developer? Is there a significant difference, and what is it?

Mojang is indie, it isn't published with other companies, and they only have about 10 people on staff... they have money, but that's because they made a good product... the deveopment of said product is relatively low budget and small time.

If you mean indie as in cool and hip and different, yeah theyre still that, but they have money. Honestly though, money shouldn't distinguish independence... it shouldn't be that only the struggling devs are indies.

 

[burningdragoon]

If anything, Mojang is proof that "indie" doesn't have to mean small in either team and game size.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

They're still independent, making millions from Minecraft doesn't change that.

 

[brendonnelly]

Independent: Yes. Indie (as in its new meaning that I find hard to define): no.

 

[Viral_Lola]

They're still independent, so yes.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Even Valve is an indie developer. The distinction is they aren't signed to a major publisher like EA or Activision; they make and publish their own games.

Actually, Valve is signed with EA. EA sells their games in stores.

OT: Yes, no publisher, and they actually maintain contact with fans. Never seen that with bigger companies.

Although the lion's share of their sales come through their own platform Steam... so they're semi-indie? All EA does is publish their hard copies, they don't finance the development of Valve's games so EA can't pressure them in the slightest to hurry a release or to take a game in a certain direction.

 

[Fiad]

They publish their own games, so yes.

 

[Altorin]

indie means that you don't have backing of a major publisher or are self-published. By definition Mojang is still very Indie.

Even Valve is an indie developer. The distinction is they aren't signed to a major publisher like EA or Activision; they make and publish their own games.

Actually, Valve is signed with EA. EA sells their games in stores.

OT: Yes, no publisher, and they actually maintain contact with fans. Never seen that with bigger companies.

EA don't finance the games though. They manufacture the hard copies and take a cut of that. That's not even really the same as "publishing" in the game industry, even though that's technically what it is. "Publishing" in the games industry has a certain weight to it - publishers pay developers to make games. They put millions of dollars into the production of the game. That's not what EA's deal is with Valve.

Valve is self-funded in terms of its game production, so it's Indie.

 

[Keava]

Indie comes from independent. If you know what the word means it's easy to figure out the rest. Do they answer to any big publisher? Do they answer to share holders? Are they part of bigger company/corporation? No? Then they are indie, no matter how much money they make.

As far as mentioned Valve goes however, while they still haven't went on stock they did change from dev studio into something bigger over the time, especially with Steamworks. They still are independent, but they are a rather big company now that acts as a publisher for many smaller indie studtios. They are the grey area between corporate and indie.

 

[random_bars]

The publisher thing doesn't matter, it's about whether the company is privately owned or not.

It is an indie developer. And privately owned business is "indie". This means Mojang is indie, Valve is indie, Bungie is indie(and I know they signed a publishing deal with Activision. Bungie is still owned by it's heads, so it is still independent), and any other development studio that is privately owned, no matter how big or small, is independent.

This guy gets it.