Starting a tech business has never been easier, thanks to digital platforms. But an easy start does not automatically lead to sustainable, successful growth. In this edition of ESHCC PhD Stories, we speak with Anne Heslinga, who recently obtained her PhD at the History Department of Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Her dissertation uses the Dutch games industry to show that platform markets produce many small, dependent studios that struggle to scale once the market becomes saturated.
Your research centres on digital platforms and entrepreneurship. How do you explain it to people outside academia?
"I usually start by connecting to the knowledge and experiences most people have had with games. Many people know about the largest actors in the game industry, like Sony or Microsoft who produce consoles (Play Station and Xbox) and also produce games. Others have experience with games they play on their phone or computer. What some may be less aware of is the industry behind those games and how digital platforms have driven rapid growth in this industry.
My research looks at this major shift over the past 20 years: digital platforms like Steam and the App Store have made it possible for much smaller teams to build and publish games for a global audience. That has not only lowered barriers to entry, but also changed the geography of the industry. A very concrete example is the Dutch game industry, where the number of studios has skyrocketed from a handful in 2000 to hundreds of businesses today. Using digital distribution platforms and readily available software, a small Dutch team can build a game, publish it globally through Steam or the App Store, and reach millions of customers — something that would have been extremely difficult twenty years ago.”
“But then I explain why the bigger question is not “Can you start?” but “Can you compete and grow?”. My research shows that Dutch studios often face structural disadvantages beyond technology access. Many lack basic forms of support, especially reliable access to finance, experienced talent, and commercialisation networks, which makes it difficult to compete and catch up with more established international players, even though platforms create real opportunities to enter the market.”
What do you see as the most important or surprising findings?
"The clearest finding is that only a small group of highly competitive, well-connected studios in the Netherlands actually manage to grow sustainably. That pattern is very consistent across the different parts of my research."
"What surprised me most, though, is where the real problem lies. It is not access to technology — platforms now provide much of that — and it is not a lack of entrepreneurial ambition. The real constraint is access to the complementary resources you need to survive and grow: financing, experienced talent, the right partners, marketing capability, and business know-how. As platforms become more crowded and visibility harder to secure, those shortages become more and more damaging."
"Another finding that often surprises people is how much publishers still matter. Platforms are commonly thought to cut out the middleman, but that is not what I found. Most Dutch studios still collaborate internationally, often with publishers based in larger game industry hubs such as the United States, the United Kingdom, or Japan. These publishers still provide what small studios struggle to build on their own, and that is mostly funding, marketing, international networks, expertise in IP management. In saturated markets, those are precisely the resources that determine who can compete and who cannot."
How does your research connect to broader current affairs, for example, Europe's position in the digital economy?
"The dissertation links directly to current debates in the Netherlands and Europe about digital sovereignty and the ability to build more domestic tech firms that can compete in the digital economy. The example of the Dutch game industry shows that policy attention needs to go further than simply improving access to digital tools or supporting digital skills. The main bottleneck in platform markets is scaling and that depends on having the right ecosystem in place: better financing, deeper talent pipelines, stronger commercialisation networks. Without those conditions, many platform-enabled ventures remain vulnerable, even when technological barriers are low."
“The Dutch game industry also illustrates how platform-driven entrepreneurship can reinforce international dependency. Even with global digital distribution, firms in a smaller ecosystem like the Netherlands can remain structurally reliant on international intermediaries, such as publishers, for funding, visibility, and routes to market. Here, one strategy might be to harness knowledge transfer from international ties in the short-term, while investing in the growth of a domestic intermediaries for the long-term.”
Your dissertation also looks at generative AI. Is it transforming the games industry?
"I also looked at generative AI in game production and the research relates to the current public debate around AI in creative industries. And yes, adoption is real, but constrained. Generative AI is still an early-stage technology with significant risks, particularly around quality and reliability, integration into production pipelines, and security. Studios are genuinely using these tools, particularly for prototyping and repetitive tasks. The larger studios we spoke to are actually much more cautious about using Generative AI directly to produce code and assets because of the liabilities related to copyright and overall challenges of integrating AI into highly complex production pipelines. Smaller studios use Generative AI for prototyping and in the early stages of design, but even here there is reticence to use the technology for final outputs."
“Based on the studios we spoke to, it seems as though Generative AI can make the initial phases of producing a game easier, but some studios are still struggling to turn it into a major productivity boost across the full production process.”
What is the key takeaway of your research?
"Platforms create genuine opportunities, I want to be clear about that. But they do not level the playing field on their own. What I keep coming back to is that sustainable success depends on building commercialisation capabilities and strong networks, and that does not happen automatically. It requires the right conditions to be in place and right now, that environment is still not strong enough here."
“That is precisely where I think Dutch and European policymakers need to step up. The focus should shift away from access to technology and towards the conditions that allow firms to actually grow. That means using public support to mobilize finance, talent, and the kind of ecosystem that turns promising starters into lasting competitors."
- Researcher
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Anne Heslinga's promotors are Prof.dr. Ben Wubs and Prof.dr. Paul van de Laar.
