Depending on the structure of the corporation, that could have little influence ultimately.  If, for example, all stock issued at the stock exchange is what is known as preferred stock and all common stock is held internally, those shareholders are nothing but investors with no control in the company at all.  They're just a source of investment.

I mean, reality is no creator is "free" from dependence.  If it's not publishers or investors, it's your audience.  The reality is every creator looking to make a living off his creation is bound by something.

Indie is just about being able to dictate where you draw the lines rather than some overseeing group.

So then what counts as a "major devloper"?

What about games like Splatoon or Halo Spartan assualt which have small budgets and arent AAA? I wouldnt consider them indie since they are not by an independent studios.

Minecraft was released when Mojang was an indie devleoper so ill still consider it an indie while a game like Cobalt was made while being owned by Microsoft is not an indie.

Those can still be indie as crowdfunded games has no obligation towards the people who donate. That's why they can decide to not release the game and just spend the money as they please.

Taking a look at kickstarter donaters get certain reqrds based on how much they donate and the devs are obligated to go through wiht the donaters and if the projects dont go through devs have to find a resolution to please the backers ot they are subject to legal action.

thats a common misconception. contrary to what some people may believe, low-budget and indie do not always mean the same thing. big companies can still make low budget games, and indie companies can still make big budget AAA games, although at that point theyve probably evolved into a 3rd party company

Is a game made by Indiana Jones.

The only way to get anything back is to initiate a class action. Which is why so many kickstarter games were never released and nothing came out of it.

Actually, the launching of a crowdfunding campaign is an act that constitutes a legally binding contract in most cases, in accordance with the Terms of Use of the platform.  Kickstarter is a good example.

Also, from a legal perspective, if a project entices people to send money to them for a project that they have no intentions of putting the money towards, that's textbook fraud, an illegal act.  

Actually, as a writer, I can point out your definition of indie for writers is wrong.  It means self published and written.  This is because the relationship between publisher and writer goes way beyond distribution, unlike games where publishers frequently do act more or less purely as distributors.  Shoot there are game publishers where that's all you do.

If a project being sizable invalidates the indie tag than...what's the point?  Indie is a word with definite meaning.  It means independent.  Has nothing to do with budget.  It's a profound oxymoron that indies are more restricted in what they can do and still be recognized for what they are than AAA companies.

Most indie games are intended to hit as much people as possible. Gmaes like Minecraft, Rocket League, and Shovel Knight have hit a mainstream audience and most of these developers want these games to be big and become mainstream.