In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, while already massive, appears only to be the opening act of a broader expansion plan, according to MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s vision, set shortly after the Plarium deal, is to double MTG’s overall size once again. “We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she explained.
“And yes, we want to fuel and continue to drive organic growth, but in order to do that, we will need to do more acquisitions.” The timetable for this ambition is aggressive: Redin estimates a three‑to‑five‑year window to achieve the doubling. She noted that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to scale quickly, recalling a 2021 goal that resulted in a tripling of the firm’s footprint. The mobile gaming sector, which once enjoyed double‑digit growth, now averages single‑digit increases as the market matures. What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will likely involve capturing competitors’ market share—either by out‑performing them or by absorbing them outright.
While buying studios can be straightforward, integrating them into a cohesive operation is notoriously difficult. The industry is littered with stories of acquisitions that led to cultural clashes, duplicated technology stacks, and ultimately studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap for integration. Before the Plarium purchase, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (known for 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—the latter covering games that sit between pure casual experiences and hardcore titles. The recent rebranding renamed these divisions Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported games, while Playamp houses the in‑app‑purchase‑driven titles that now represent the bulk of MTG’s revenue. Redin emphasizes that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change. Her goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase that deliberately evokes a sense of community and belonging.
“It is supposed to create something that people want to be part of,” she said, underscoring the importance of employee retention and cultural integration as the company continues to acquire new teams. She argues that talent is MTG’s greatest asset, and that keeping founders and development crews engaged after a purchase is essential for unlocking the full growth potential of each studio. A key element of the integration strategy is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group.
Redin has pursued this aim since becoming CEO in 2020, but she believes the scale achieved with the Plarium deal finally makes a company‑wide rollout feasible. “Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company,” she noted. The approach mirrors past attempts at tech unification—such as Electronic Arts’ push for the Frostbite engine, which proved problematic for studios working on very different genres.
MTG is careful to differentiate the needs of Playsimple and Playamp; the former’s tech stack will serve future casual acquisitions, while a curated selection of Plarium’s technology will be introduced to the midcore division on a case‑by‑case basis. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data suite have already been rolled out across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance their utility. Redin explained that the company is focused on “putting our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” leveraging the strong development talent across the group while equipping Playamp studios with a robust, shared tech suite.
Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s future. Generative AI tools are already reshaping content creation at InnoGames, where AI has been used to produce assets for the mobile title Sunrise Village and is being expanded to other projects. Redin sees this as part of a broader industry trend: AI is being woven into production pipelines for tasks ranging from A/B testing to graphics generation and quality assurance. “AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before,” she said, adding that the challenge now is to strike the right balance—integrating AI where it adds value while preserving the creative instincts of human designers.
MTG’s AI strategy involves layering intelligent capabilities onto existing workflows and sharing successful implementations across studios. When a particular AI‑driven solution proves effective at one studio, the company aims to disseminate it quickly throughout the organisation, provided it aligns with the overarching AI framework that defines permissible uses. Redin cautions against the notion that AI will replace human creativity entirely.
“I often get the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do? And I actually don’t think so,” she remarked.
Nonetheless, she believes that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors, especially in a market where speed to market and iterative improvement are critical. Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now stems from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She cited Snowprint as an example of a studio she would like to replicate globally, and hinted at the possibility of adding a third “district” to the gaming village—potentially built around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics.
When asked about the health of the mobile gaming ecosystem, Redin observed that the top‑ten charts have remained remarkably stable, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual property. While the company continues to invest in new titles—Plarium, for instance, is preparing a soft launch for a fresh game early next year—Redin acknowledges the difficulty of creating hits in a saturated market. She points to the broader industry context, noting that only two of the 22 mobile games surpassing $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originated from Western developers, and that even major players like Supercell have struggled to launch successful new IPs. Despite these challenges, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s overall potential.
With roughly three billion gamers worldwide, she sees ample opportunity for growth, even if the era of hyper‑rapid expansion is over. “We see low single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth depending on the data source,” she said. “If you want to grow above and beyond that, you need to continue to invest in your strong evergreen IPs, but you also need to be able to bring new games to the market.”