Quotes from Notch's most recent post on The Word of Notch

Right now we’re about 12-15 people, depending on how you count, and we want to grow to “a bit larger

Mojang’s mission statement is “Mojang shall be the most influential indie game development studio on Earth”

Or maybe the question should be what is indie?

When they don't really answer to the demands of publishers and stuff like that I guess? I dunno man

It ends when they stop being an independent game studio just as the term "indie" implies.

When they start selling map packs at outrageous prices.

So according to this Valve is an indie developer? :)

Indie means independent. You don't answer to anyone but yourself. CCP (makers of Eve) is probably the largest indie dev I can think of. They easily have hundreds of employees. They aren't owned by anyone. They don't make anyone else's games. CCP works for CCP.

Also, I think Notch could pull this off. CCP makes very niche games and they're still doing great despite having a rough year. Mojang clearly makes games with much, much broader appeal and so far, so good.

edit: Oh yeah, Valve too. They're an independent studio believe it or not and I assume they also have hundreds of employees...not counting the Half-Life team since they died in a tragic office accident. They got locked in their offices, starved to death, etc etc. Sad really. No one went to go check on them for months. Guess afterwards, Gabe realized that people were taking the "no one goes to the Half-Life floor" signs a bit too seriously.

@laugurinn: Yes Valve is independent, they don't have any owners, they self publish (most of the time) they run themselves, therefore "indie" Mojang is indie as long as it remains independent, if you see what I mean,

You could argue that Bungie were independent until they entered into a contract with Activision, however, they still aren't owned by anyone other than themselves, so are still independent.

"Indie" doesn't necessarily mean "small"

@BabyChooChoo said:

Oh yeah, Valve too. They're an independent studio believe it or not and I assume they also have hundreds of employees...not counting the Half-Life team since they died in a tragic office accident.

I am in tears right now!

Give the man a hand!

@sirdesmond said:

It ends when they stop being an independent game studio just as the term "indie" implies.

when some big publishing company buys you out and starts telling you how to make your games.

When Mojang sues indie game developer for naming his game "Scrolled".

I feel as though taking the term "indie" to mean nothing more than without a parent company kind of destroys the intent.

That makes Bethesda Softworks and id Software held developers while ZeniMax Media is truly an "indie" developer, albeit through its subsidiaries.

Yes, it's true in the literal definition of the word "independent," but I think it has more to do with the spirit of the company. It's much like the Bombcast Crew's discussion over the eventual collapse of the "Download Only" GOTY category. The segment will still exist, but it will no longer be medium of distribution, but rather intangible spirit of the production.

I hate the word indie. It reminds me of the word hipster. I get the impression that a real, crazy-ass 'indie' person would say something stops being indie wants it starts getting popular. I would say that that person fucking sucks.

@laugurinn said:

So according to this Valve is an indie developer? :)

Yes it is private owned

What are you trying to achieve with this pointless semantic game anyway?

Dem Mojang b pwetty Indie.

Seriously though, I think that Mojang is still quite Indie, they just found a niche in the market and went from there to make one of the best selling indie games of all time, their actual profit doesn't actually have anything to do that.

Regardless of whatever is the actual definition of Indie, anyways.