Earlier today,

JH: Just because it has a broader meaning than some people put on it doesn't mean it's inaccurate. Valve is a power unto itself, but Crytek, Mojang, Irrational, and Way Forward are all just different flavors of independent.

And any system that lets developers have more autonomy both in how their content is created and how it's distributed is a gross positive. The closer the Xbox and PlayStation 4 come to the PC in terms of giving independent developers more freedom, the better.

Tom: Now that's an idea that I can get behind. The lower the bar for entry, the more experimentation we'll see, which will only strengthen the industry going forward.

But instead of trying to arbitrarily label every developer, instead of trying to separate the Infinity Wards from the Vlambeers, or debating where Housemarque and Thatgamecompany fall, we should just call them all game developers. Then we won't unfairly downgrade Retro for having Nintendo to help it out, or excuse Paradox for releasing buggy games at launch. Without an indie designation, everyone could be looked at through the same filter, and we could let the games speak for themselves.