Minecraft got big, and so Mojang had to get bigger too. That’s just basic business physics, but as it happened, the developer kind of moved out of its indie category. Or does it count when you’re paying to develop your own game with the millions you’ve made selling it?

“I don’t think [Mojang] are indie in the sense of how I used to work any more, because we have a payroll to worry about and we need to do stuff to ensure the company lasts,” Mojang boss Markuss “Notch” Persson told PC Gamer.

“We have other stuff which influences what we do other than trying to focus on the games. We make sure me and Jakob [Porser] are only focusing on game development, so the founders are still developing.

“But as a company, I don’t think we are indie in the sense that I used to mean it. But in the other sense of indie – as in we make games we want to play without having any external dependencies – then yeah, we’re indie.”

Of course, the definition of “indie” has maybe changed a bit this generation, and no longer applies only to guys coding in their basements or garages and living on hot pockets and Mountain Dew.

Does it even really matter what it means? Probably not, although I’ve no doubt some hipster dev out there reckons Notch is, like, a total corporate sell-out poser these days and Minecraft was way better back in the day, man, and here’s this song I wrote about it on my ukelele.

Source: PC Gamer