Minecraft Is Officially Released: A Salute To Indie Games

For about two whole years, Markus Persson and his team at Mojang have slowly been etching a game under the scrutiny of the public eye. Its legacy in the world of indie games is by far unmatched. Minecraft had already sold over 4 million copies before it was released as a 1.0 version, and that number is steadily going up with roughly one purchase of the game every 5 seconds, and about every second someone registers an account.

We owe a lot to Minecraft. For a start, it introduced developers to a viable way of funding their game, alphafunding. We, as part of the indie game community, are thankful to Minecraft for opening people’s eyes up to the potential of indie games. It proves single handedly that you do not need a publisher or distribution deal to be a massive hit. Dedication, hard work and just a little bit of luck is enough.

Minecraft is an ode to indie developers everywhere. It continues to inspire and ignite an enthusiasm to hopefuls across the globe. The game’s procedurally open world which allows players to mold an infinite number of creative efforts, is a metaphor for the indie game landscape itself. Together, as a community of players, developers and journalists; we can paint the world with our innovations and joy.

It’s been a long time coming, but we can now officially write the news that Minecraft is available to purchase as a Pocket Edition and on PC as a ‘finished’ game. It’s weird to think that we have been following the game for just about two years, but only now is it really getting started. Of course, while a lot of the attention is being swerved towards Minecraft, we need to ensure that the many other hard working and talented folk working on their own creations get their share of the limelight. Minecraft is the biggest indie game of them all, currently being spoke about all over the world right now. But we here at IGM want to make sure that all the friends we have made over the last few years know, we are taking this moment to celebrate you just as much.

In indie games we trust.

While Minecraft is now available on PC and smartphones and tablets, the Xbox 360 version which will support Kinect will not be available until early 2012. There is however a rather amazing trailer for the Xbox version which you just have to see:

More information about Minecraft can be found over at the official website.