In February of last year, the Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million acquisition of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. 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 set a bold vision after the Plarium purchase: to double its overall size once more. “We laid out the ambition last year that, following the Plarium integration, we want to double again,” she explained.
“Organic growth will continue, but to hit that target we’ll need to pursue further acquisitions.” The timeline she cites is aggressive – roughly three to five years – yet she points out that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to scale quickly. In 2021 the group announced a similar goal and ended up tripling its revenue base within a short span.
The mobile gaming sector, once characterised by double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the market matures. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded, highly competitive arena where expansion often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright.
While buying companies is relatively straightforward, the real challenge lies in integrating them without disrupting existing operations. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of failed mergers that resulted in studio closures. MTG entered the Plarium deal already owning a suite of mobile studios, 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 previously organised into two “districts”: the Casual District and the Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between pure casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, MTG rebranded these divisions as Playsimple and Playamp. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, now houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the bulk of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
Redin stresses that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it is part of a broader ambition to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community and belonging, aiming to boost employee retention and smooth integration of newly acquired teams. “Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” Redin said. “People are our greatest asset, but we must also provide 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 – scaling the business together.” A key element of the integration effort is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin notes that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a shared foundation can accelerate development and reduce duplication. This standardisation agenda has been on her agenda since she became CEO in 2020, but the scale achieved after the Plarium deal finally allowed MTG to roll it out fully. She acknowledges the risks, citing EA’s problematic push to force all studios onto the Frostbite engine, but clarifies that the needs of Playsimple and Playamp differ greatly, so each division receives a tailored suite of tools.
For the Midcore (Playamp) side, MTG has adopted selected components of Plarium’s technology, deploying them selectively after a thorough internal assessment of where collaboration makes sense. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are now used company‑wide, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin explains that the goal is to maximise impact: “We want to focus our resources where we get the biggest bang for our buck.
Our studios are already talented; we’re simply giving them a stronger tech backbone to amplify what they’re doing.” Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s future strategy. The company, like many in the mobile space, is embedding generative AI into its production pipeline.
InnoGames, for example, has been generating all content for its Sunrise Village title with AI for some time and is looking to broaden that usage. Redin observes that AI is becoming a common discussion point across the industry: “Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before. We’re all figuring out how to balance it – where to adjust workflows, where to keep the human touch, and how to speed up delivery without sacrificing quality.” MTG’s AI focus is pragmatic: augmenting existing tools for A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and other routine tasks. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being rolled into the shared Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid dissemination of best practices.
Redin stresses the importance of flexibility: “Studios can experiment as long as they stay within our overarching AI framework. When one team cracks a breakthrough, we can scale it across the group quickly.” When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin is cautious.
She believes AI cannot fully replicate the imaginative spark that people bring, but she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors. “If we don’t embrace AI, we’ll be slower. The technology can super‑charge our capacity, helping us fill talent gaps in analysis, coding, art, and logic,” she said. Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now stems from the Playamp division, with the casual side (Playsimple) contributing about 20 %.
Redin is eager to expand both sides, noting that the company acquired Snowprint a few years ago and would welcome additional studios of a similar profile. She also hints at the possibility of adding a third “district” to the gaming village, likely built around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains confident about growth prospects. She points out that the mobile top‑ten chart changes little each year and that evergreen IPs continue to generate steady revenue.
Nonetheless, she acknowledges the necessity of a fresh pipeline: “Raid has many years left, but we must keep developing new games. Otherwise we lose the creative DNA that fuels our studios.” The broader industry context is sobering.
Western mobile developers have struggled to produce new billion‑dollar hits, with only two out of 22 titles reaching that milestone since 2020. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have faltered, as seen with the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin concedes that creating and scaling a hit game is difficult, but she views new titles as essential to sustaining growth in a market that now averages low‑ to mid‑single‑digit expansion.
In summary, MTG’s strategy under Redin’s leadership combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful rebranding, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production to double the company’s size within a few years. While evergreen franchises remain the backbone of revenue, the firm is committed to nurturing fresh IPs to keep its creative engine humming and to capture the remaining growth potential in a mature yet still sizable global gaming audience.