When describing a game that looks like it had a smallish team and graphics budget, ‘indie’ is a useful shorthand. It sets certain expectations.

Certainly marketing and media (as evidenced by the article) find this useful, but I think many consumers also are more interested in the game than in the creators. So it makes sense that this language shift happens.

But yes it certainly misses the theoretical point of a category like that.

And would be nice if it was replaced with a technically correct word. ‘Indie-like’?