How do industry executives rate Europe's position in the global market? We spoke to Marco Alessandro Minoli, the Publishing Director of Slitherine, to find out.
The European games market is large and varied, but how does its level of competitiveness compare with that of the USA and Asia? So, how are companies dealing with these challenges? This series of interviews features numerous executives answering all these questions. We interviewed Marco Alessandro Minoli, the Publishing Director of Slitherine (UK).
GamesMarkt: What is your opinion of the current state of the European games market?
Marco Alessandro Minoli: "Slitherine has about 150 employees. We have three main offices in Epsom (London), Milan (Italy), Warsaw (Poland), and Athens (Greece), but also have employees in France and Spain. Europe is wide and varied "market". We like to think of it as a unified hub, but there are huge differences in operating businesses in its various corners, so it's hard to answer. For strategy games, which is our core niche, Europe is still where we find the best balance of knowledgeable designers and acceptable production costs, so we focus a lot of our business development in the region, especially in Eastern and Southern Europe."
Slitherine's most successful launch to date was Broken Arrow, which was released on 19 June 2025 and achieved a peak of 38,753 concurrent users on Steam. The publisher specialises in strategy games, including IP adaptations such as Starship Troopers: Terran Command, Terminator: Dark Fate: Defiance, Stargate: Timekeepers, as well as war games.
GamesMarkt: Is Europe able to compete with the other major markets, particularly North America and Asia?
Marco Alessandro Minoli: "Europe can definitely compete with North America. It still has a significant cost advantage and proximity to global audience tastes, especially for indie and AA game productions. While Asia can be a market of its own, it remains a reference for outsourcing, technology hubs, and testing new market expansions. China isn't the only example of an Asian market that can provide exponential, non-organic growth for certain types of games."
GamesMarkt: How would you say Slitherine is positioned in terms of the opportunities and challenges it faces in the European market?
Marco Alessandro Minoli: "We are in the interesting position of being a mature business with a solid foundation, ready for the challenges of the market of the future. With AI, LLMs, new distribution models, different business models, and slimmer, more distributed development, we are carefully looking for the next opportunity to foster a more responsible approach to development and publishing, with a long-term vision of continued growth."
