Slitherine and Bocconi University Partner for Video Game Marketing

The Italian branch of strategic video game publisher Slitherine and Bocconi University recently concluded an educational collaboration involving over 70 students from the Brand Management course, offering them the opportunity to tackle a real international marketing challenge in the video game sector. 

The project, conceived by Slitherine in collaboration with Professor Roberta De Sanctis and Professor Erminio Putignano, engaged students from the Brand Management course with a unique project work, built directly on a real market challenge.

For this project, Slitherine decided to take students away from traditional theoretical university exercises, instead proposing a concrete simulation of strategic marketing and product launch. Divided into eleven teams, the students worked on creating a complete marketing plan for the launch of one of Slitherine's most important and ambitious video games, developed in collaboration with board game publisher Asmodee. The core of the collaboration focused on identifying the “Crossover Player”: the audience capable of connecting the world of hardcore strategic gaming with a wider, more mainstream audience, without sacrificing the authenticity and depth required by the community of more experienced wargamers. A complex task, requiring brand storytelling skills, competitive analysis, and the construction of a differentiation strategy much more advanced than traditional “launch day marketing” logics.

The journey began with an introductory lecture given by Slitherine's Director of Publishing, Marco Alessandro Minoli, along with Marketing Manager Giulia Sellitto and Brand Manager Sofia Corona. Subsequently, the students developed their projects with the constant support of Slitherine's marketing team over approximately two months.

On May 13, the eleven teams presented their proposals to a jury composed of Marco Alessandro Minoli, Giulia Sellitto, Slitherine CEO Iain McNeil, and the project's Brand Manager, Sofia Corona.

The team selected as the winner of the best project work will have the opportunity to share their experience during a live stream on Slitherine's Twitch channel and will also be involved in the launch activities of the video game, scheduled for mid-2027.  

“When one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world in the field of business, Bocconi University, invites a publisher to collaborate with its Master's students, it confirms how sophisticated and complex the strategies for transitioning from a niche market to a mass market have become today,” commented Marco Alessandro Minoli, Director of Publishing at Slitherine. “We recently challenged a class of future marketing leaders to tackle a problem of extremely high strategic value: the digital transition of a legendary tabletop IP to the global digital market of Steam for PC and those of Xbox and PlayStation consoles. This was not a simple exercise aimed at ‘creating hype’. On the contrary, the work focused entirely on the technical complexities of IP positioning and the delicate migration of a historical community to a modern digital ecosystem.”

This collaboration represents a concrete example of how universities and the video game industry can work together to create high-value educational experiences, capable of exposing students to the dynamics, challenges, and responsibilities typical of the real market.

Slitherine, British publisher, Italian soul

Slitherine is a British publisher that has been developing and publishing strategy video games since the early 2000s. Founded in the United Kingdom and globally known for the development and publication of some of the most widespread and played strategic video games in the world, Slitherine collaborates with some of the most important brands in the gaming and tabletop sector, such as Sony Pictures, Universal, and Games Workshop.

Among its most successful titles are Starship Troopers: Terran Command, set in the universe of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 cult film; Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, an action RTS inspired by the latest Terminator franchise films; Stargate: Timekeepers, which continues the narrative arc of the SG-1 TV series; and Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, a title that serves as a prequel to the famous 2004–2009 television reboot. In June 2025, Slitherine also launched the strategy game Broken Arrow, which sold over 800,000 copies in less than three months.

Slitherine's Italian headquarters, located a short walk from Milan's Sforza Castle, employs 16 professionals, all Italian and all very young – with an average age under 35. From the Milanese office, the publisher's global development, marketing, and communication activities are managed, from the United States to China, passing through Europe.