In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment titan Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, that deal is only the opening act of a much larger growth narrative.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set out after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its size once again. “We defined the vision last year that after bringing Plarium into the fold we want to double again,” she explained.
“Organic growth remains important, but to reach that next level we’ll need to pursue additional acquisitions.” The timeline she proposes is aggressive: the goal is to achieve the doubling within a three‑to‑five‑year window. Redin noted that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to meet bold targets, recalling that a similar ambition set in 2021 resulted in a tripling of the firm’s scale.
The mobile market, once characterised by rapid double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the sector matures. What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has become a crowded, highly competitive arena where growth often means capturing market share from rivals or absorbing them outright.
While buying companies can be straightforward, the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly—a process that has derailed many deals in the gaming world, leading to studio closures and lost talent. MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios before the Plarium deal, including InnoGames (creator of Forge of Empires), Snowprint (Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6), and Futureplay (Merge Gardens). These studios were grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District (midcore describing games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). The recent rebranding renamed these divisions Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio—games that rely on in‑app purchases (IAPs). Redin emphasised that the rebranding is more than cosmetic. She wants to create “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community that employees want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering a cohesive culture are crucial when a company expands rapidly through acquisitions.
“Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” Redin said. “People are our biggest asset, but we must also provide an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a studio, we expect the founders and their teams to stay on board, because that’s when the real story begins and scaling can happen. The only way to keep them is to make sure they enjoy the environment.” Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio—a goal Redin set when she became CEO in 2020.
The Plarium acquisition gave the group enough scale to roll out this vision fully. She acknowledged the pitfalls of forced tech uniformity, citing Electronic Arts’ problematic push to adopt the Frostbite engine across its studios.
To avoid similar issues, MTG treats the tech needs of Playsimple and Playamp separately. Playsimple’s stack will serve as the foundation for future casual‑district studios, while the midcore district will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s technology suite, ensuring that each studio benefits without unnecessary disruption. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being leveraged across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to enhance studio output.
Redin explained that the company aims to concentrate resources where they deliver the greatest return, “supercharging” Playamp studios with a robust tech suite that elevates existing capabilities. Generative AI is also reshaping MTG’s development pipeline. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin noted that AI is being woven into various production processes—A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and more.
Successful AI tools from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid dissemination of best practices throughout the group. When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creators, Redin was cautious. She believes AI cannot replicate the core creativity of talented teams, but she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG trailing competitors. “If we don’t embrace AI, we’ll be slower than the market,” she said.
“AI can help us overcome capacity shortfalls in analysis, coding, art, and complex logic, allowing us to maintain our creative vision while accelerating production.” Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s earnings now stem from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single casual studio, Playsimple. Redin expressed a desire to broaden both sides: “We bought Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint would be fantastic. On the casual side, we want more scale.” She hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, likely centred around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains confident in its long‑term potential.
She observes that the top‑ten mobile games change little year after year, reinforcing MTG’s belief in evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of revenue ahead, MTG continues to invest in new titles to keep the creative pipeline alive.
Plarium, for instance, is preparing a new game for soft launch early next year. Industry observers like Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen have warned that Western mobile developers are “coasting,” noting that only two of the 22 mobile games surpassing $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West.
Yet Redin argues that new‑game development is essential for preserving studio DNA, creativity, and passion. She acknowledges the difficulty of launching successful new titles but insists that without fresh IPs, growth stalls. In summary, Redin’s roadmap for MTG combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, strategic rebranding, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production. By balancing the stability of proven evergreen franchises with the risk‑taking required to nurture new games, she aims to double the company’s size within a few years while maintaining a vibrant, collaborative “gaming village” culture.