Minecraft Developer Notch no Longer Thinks Mojang is Indie
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As success has flowed to the fledgling Swedish games developer, its founder no longer considers it to be “indie”.
Markus “Notch” Persson told PC Gamer:
I don’t think (Mojang) are indie in the sense of how I used to work anymore, because we have a payroll to worry about and we need to do stuff to ensure the company lasts.
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.
Notch described the changing landscape of indie game development, noting how it has become far more acceptable to charge for indie game productions in recent years. He attributed this change in part to the desire of gamers to support indie developers who were producing solid, original and playable games that provided a viable alternative to mainstream offerings.
He also highlighted the vast influence that the Valve created digital distribution platform Steam has had on indie gaming. By avoiding the significant costs of packaging and physical distribution, indie games have a much easier time of turning a profit.
Notch was quick to warn that it’s still no easy task to pull off an indie hit:
It’s much easier these days, but there’s still no guarantee you’ll make a profit. If you’re doing it out of passion and just want to get some money back, it’s definitely doable.
The Minecraft magnate is now a millionaire himself, due to the spectacular success of his block-busting creation. With 20 million registered users and close to 5 million players having paid for it, Mojang has apparently transcended its indie status, for better or worse.
