In February of last year, the Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion playbook, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium transaction, is to double its overall scale again within the next three to five years. “We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she said.
“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 timeline is aggressive, but Redin points out that MTG has already proven its capacity to grow quickly. In 2021 the group announced a similar target and, as she noted, the company actually tripled its size in the years that followed. The mobile gaming market, once characterised by double‑digit growth, has now settled into a single‑digit expansion phase as the sector matures. What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has turned decidedly red, meaning that future growth will largely come from taking market share from rivals—or, more directly, by swallowing them whole.
While buying studios is relatively straightforward, integrating them successfully is notoriously difficult, with many high‑profile failures ending in studio closures. Redin believes MTG has a clear plan to avoid those pitfalls. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (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 (midcore being a blend of casual and hardcore experiences).
The districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported games, while Playamp focuses on titles that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, the segment that now makes up the bulk of MTG’s earnings.
Redin says the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it is part of a vision to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community that employees want to belong to. Retaining talent and ensuring smooth integration of newly acquired teams are top priorities for a company that has been buying studios at an accelerating pace. “People are one of our biggest assets,” Redin explained.
“We need to create an environment where they can thrive, and that means keeping founders and teams on board after acquisition so the real story can begin.” A key element of the integration effort is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has been pushing for a unified tech stack since she became CEO in 2020, but she says the Plarium acquisition gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. “Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company,” she noted.
However, she is careful to stress that the needs of Playsimple differ markedly from those of Playamp, so the two districts are being equipped with separate, specialised toolsets. For the Casual District, Playsimple’s tech stack will serve as the baseline for future studios that join that side of the business. In the Midcore District, MTG has selected components of Plarium’s technology suite to share group‑wide, but the rollout is being done selectively to ensure each studio benefits without compromising its own creative workflow. An internal assessment identified where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it does not.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data system are already being deployed across MTG, and Redin says the company is adding new features to enhance them. “We want to make sure that we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” she said. “We have some amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we want to super‑charge that with a tech suite they can leverage, elevating everything that was already done.” Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s modernization strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is looking to expand AI‑driven production across its portfolio.
Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in many mobile development pipelines. “We are all having similar discussions on how we embrace new technology in our production chain,” she said, adding that generative AI is “significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before.” The company’s approach is to layer AI onto existing processes—A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and more—rather than replace human creativity. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being folded into the broader Plarium tech suite and rolled out to other teams. “We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as they fit into our overarching AI framework,” Redin explained.
“When one company develops something really good, we can quickly share it at scale.” When asked whether AI will eventually make human designers obsolete, Redin cautioned against such deterministic thinking. “I often get the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do? I don’t think so,” she replied.
“Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate. But if we ignore AI, we will fall behind competitors. AI can help us overcome capacity shortfalls in coding, art, analysis and advanced logic, super‑charging our ability to deliver amazing games faster.” Currently, roughly 80 % of MTG’s revenue comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. “We bought Snowprint a couple of years back, and if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic,” she said. On the casual side, she hopes to add more studios to increase scale. While MTG is focused on building Playamp and Playsimple, Redin hinted at the possibility of a third district in the future—one that would leverage the group’s core capabilities in marketing platforms or data analytics.
Despite the rapid changes in the market, the composition of the mobile top‑ten remains remarkably stable. “Every year we do the same analysis, and you realise that the top games remain very consistent,” Redin noted.
MTG’s long‑term thesis has always centred on evergreen IPs—games that generate steady revenue over many years. Raid: Shadow Legends, for instance, still has many years of growth potential, but the company also recognises the need for a fresh pipeline of titles. The challenge of launching successful new games is underscored by industry commentary from Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, who warned that the western mobile market is “coasting,” with only two of the 22 billion‑dollar titles since 2020 originating in the West. Supercell itself has struggled to turn new incubated projects into hits, as illustrated by the recent shutdown of Squad Busters.
Redin acknowledges the difficulty but stresses that a continuous flow of new IPs is essential to preserve studio DNA, creativity, and passion. “Plarium has a new title slated for soft launch early next year,” she said. “Investing in new games keeps the creative engine running.” Looking ahead, Redin believes the market remains compelling despite its maturity.
With three billion gamers worldwide, there is still room for growth, even if hyper‑growth rates have faded. “We see low single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth depending on the data source,” she said.
“To exceed that, you need to double‑down on strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh games to market.”