In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, that deal is only the opening move in a broader expansion agenda. “We laid out a vision last year that, following the Plarium acquisition, we aim to double our size once more,” Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. “We certainly want to keep driving organic growth, but to do that we’ll need to pursue additional acquisitions.” The timeline she cites is bold: the company hopes to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years.
Redin notes that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to scale quickly, recalling that the firm set a similar target in 2021 and ended up tripling its size. A few years ago the mobile sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, but that momentum has slowed to single‑digit growth as the market matures. What once resembled a blue ocean now looks decidedly red, meaning that future growth will likely require taking market share from rivals—or absorbing them entirely. Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly.
The games industry is littered with cautionary tales of botched mergers that culminated in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap.
Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, 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”: the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences.
Those divisions have now been renamed Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases.
The rebranding goes beyond a simple name change. Redin says the ambition is to forge “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is intentional, meant to evoke a community that people want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering integration are top priorities for a company that has been on an acquisition spree.
“I always say gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” Redin explained. “People are our greatest asset, but we also need to create an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a studio we want the founders and their teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins and we can scale the business.
The only way to make that happen is to build a workplace they enjoy.” Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its studios. Redin notes that not every solution needs to be built from scratch for each company. The push for standardisation began when she became CEO in 2020, but the scale required to roll it out fully only arrived with the Plarium deal.
The industry has seen the pitfalls of forced tech uniformity before. Electronic Arts’ mandate that all its studios adopt the proprietary Frostbite engine caused significant friction on projects such as Mass Effect. Redin is aware that the technical needs of Playsimple differ greatly from those of Playamp, so the two divisions are being treated separately. “Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual‑district acquisitions,” she said.
“For the midcore side we have selected parts of Plarium’s suite to roll out group‑wide, but we’re doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio. We’ve conducted a thorough internal assessment to decide where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it doesn’t.” Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added. The goal is to boost the output of all studios. “We want to invest where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” Redin affirmed.
“We have fantastic game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Generative AI is also reshaping MTG’s workflow, mirroring a broader trend in mobile gaming. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its Sunrise Village title for some time and plans to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin observes that many industry peers are having similar conversations about embedding new technology into production pipelines. “Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” she said.
“We’re all trying to find the right balance—where do we change the workflow, where do we keep it, and where can AI help us do more? Ultimately, it’s about leveraging new tech to make our games more relevant to players and, ideally, to bring new titles to market faster and better.” At MTG, AI is being layered onto existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite for broader use.
“We need to let our studios experiment, as long as they stay within our overarching AI framework of dos and don’ts,” Redin explained. “When one team develops something great, we can quickly roll it out across the company.” When asked whether AI has become indispensable in today’s cut‑throat mobile market, Redin cautioned against absolute statements.
“I often hear the question, ‘Will gaming AI replace everything we do?’ I don’t think so. Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate,” she said. “But if we ignore AI, we’ll fall behind competitors.
Embracing it lets us maintain our pace, supercharging everything while preserving the creativity, innovation, and vision of our teams.” She added that AI can help alleviate capacity shortfalls in areas such as coding, art, and complex logic, enabling the company to continue delivering high‑quality games. Currently about 80 % of MTG’s revenue comes from the Playamp division, and Redin is eager to broaden the studio roster. “We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint worldwide would be fantastic. On the casual side we’d also like to add scale.” At present the casual segment consists of a single studio—Playsimple—but it still contributes roughly 20 % of revenue.
Redin noted that the company is busy building both Playamp and Playsimple and preparing for a potential IPO, but she also hinted at the possibility of adding a third “district” to the gaming village. While the exact shape of this new district remains undefined, she indicated it would likely centre on the core capabilities MTG already possesses, such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Regarding the game pipeline, Redin sees the future as an extension of the present.
The top‑ten mobile games rarely shift dramatically year to year. “Every year we run the same analysis and see the top titles stay remarkably consistent,” she said. “From day one our thesis has been to focus on evergreen IPs.” That said, the company still believes in developing new games to keep the pipeline fresh. “Raid has many years ahead of it, but that doesn’t mean we ignore new titles.
You need a constant flow of fresh games to stay competitive.” The challenge is evident. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the Western mobile market is “coasting,” noting that only two of the 22 mobile games that have generated over $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled; its Squad Busters project was shut down after a 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges the difficulty: “It’s hard to create a hit and then scale it,” she said, noting that Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year.
“If we stopped investing in new games, we’d lose part of each studio’s DNA. That creativity, passion, and drive are essential.” Looking at the broader landscape, Redin remains optimistic about growth despite market maturity.
“We’ve moved from hyper‑growth to a period of stabilization and low‑single‑digit growth,” she said. “There are three billion gamers out there, so the market is still compelling. Yes, we compete for attention with streaming services and social media, but I still believe there’s room to grow.” She cautions, however, that the explosive growth of the past is unlikely to return.
“Depending on the data source, you’ll see growth ranging from low single digits to mid‑single digits. To exceed that, you need to keep investing in strong evergreen IPs and also bring new games to market.”