This has been annoying me for a little while as the trend grows more common. Look guys, if you are looking for a 4 letter word that means that what you are offering is a sample of a larger work, there’s a word for that. That word is Demo, short for Demolition- wait.. Demonstration. Its not that hard.
Lite refers to a product which has something removed, or made more efficient so that it it easier to use. For foods and drinks it refers to the removal of calories. For software it means removing features that bog down the game’s performance. That is the intended use of the word ‘Lite’
It does not mean demo. There’s already a word for that, USE IT. Specifically Square-Enix. Your Song Summoner Lite game? The one that’s like 3 battles long, and 90% tutorial before cutting out and saying its actually just the demo? Yeah, I’m not going to be buying the full version now. That was way too short even for a Demo; barely learn the controls, and spend most of the time in exposition and tutorial means you don’t give the player a chance to get a feel for the game’s mechanics and gameplay and decide if its fun.
Demo =/= Lite. Stop pretending otherwise.