Interview: Slitherine Director on the trials and opportunities for niche publishers

Interview by Matt S. 

You likely haven't heard of Slitherine or Matrix Games (they're the the same company), unless you're an aficionado of serious strategy games. If being a armchair general appeals to you, however, it is very likely that you've played a title like Battle Academy, or one of the Commander titles.

What's fascinating about Slitherine is that is is one of the few companies that absolutely insists on the value of its content. Sales are few and far between, and in fact its Battle Academy release is one of the most expensive games you can pick up on the iPad. And yet, even as the rest of the corporations in the industry look to batter one another into submission with slash-price cutthroating, Slitherine has succeed, making a strong argument that it's more sustainable to find a niche and supply it with quality products than try to appeal to a mass market without really engaging with the players.

We sat down to have a chat with the Director of Slitherine, J.D McNeil, about his frustrations with this flight to the bottom, the retail system, and the challenges that niche publishers face with console manufacturers and audiences.

What I found really interesting is that for all the rhetoric around being supportive of indie developers and publishers, Slitherine's experience with Sony's approvals system is still something of a business risk. After going through the energy of developing a game for the platform, to have it denied release, despite being deemed of standard enough for other markets, is a very real risk of a failed investment. Luckily it worked out well for Slitherine in the end, but it's a sign that the console platforms are still not a guaranteed avenue to success.

As the digital market continues to grow and strip production costs out of game development, it is going to be interesting to see if more independent and niche publishers are able to find similarly sustainable business models. If McNeil is right, they should be able to succeed, as long as they don't treat their content as a throwaway commodity.