In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million acquisition of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin, that deal is only the opening move in a broader expansion playbook.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a clear vision after the Plarium deal: “We want to double our size again after the acquisition, and we intend to do it by fueling organic growth while also pursuing further purchases.” She added that the target is to achieve this scale within roughly three to five years. The ambition is not new – MTG aimed for a similar trajectory in 2021 and, as Redin noted, the group actually tripled its size that year. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years.
Where once the sector enjoyed double‑digit growth, it now registers single‑digit gains as the market matures. The early‑stage “blue ocean” has become a crowded “red ocean,” meaning that future expansion will likely involve taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Acquisitions are relatively straightforward; integrating the new studios is the real challenge.
The industry is littered with cautionary tales of failed integrations that led to studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a robust plan.
Before buying Plarium, the group already owned several 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 split into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District (midcore describing games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). These districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp. Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, gathers free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the bulk of MTG’s portfolio – games that rely on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
The renaming is more than cosmetic; Redin says the goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The phrasing is intentional, aiming to foster a sense of community that encourages talent to stay and thrive – a critical factor when a company is rapidly adding new studios. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explained.
"People are our greatest asset, but they need an environment where they can flourish. When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to remain on board because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business together.
The only way to ensure they stay is to build a workplace they enjoy." A key part of the post‑Plarium integration has been the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has pursued this agenda since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says Plarium gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. She acknowledges the risks – citing Electronic Arts’ problematic push to force all studios onto the Frostbite engine – but stresses that the tech stacks for Playsimple and Playamp differ markedly and are being handled separately. For the Casual District, Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve as the template for future acquisitions.
In the Midcore District, MTG has selected components of Plarium’s technology suite to share group‑wide, but the rollout is being executed selectively after a thorough internal assessment of where collaboration makes sense. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being used across MTG, with additional features being added to boost studio productivity. Redin emphasises that the company wants to allocate resources where they generate the highest return.
"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," she said. Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin observes that AI is being woven into production pipelines industry‑wide, offering unprecedented power compared with previous tools.
The challenge, she notes, is finding the right balance: deciding which workflows to augment with AI, which to keep unchanged, and where AI can accelerate delivery without compromising quality. The company is layering AI onto existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid diffusion of best practices.
"We let studios experiment within our overarching AI framework, share learnings, and then roll out the most effective innovations across the group," Redin explained. When asked whether AI has become indispensable in the fast‑moving mobile market, Redin cautioned against overstatement.
She believes human creativity remains essential and cannot yet be fully replicated by machines. Yet she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG trailing competitors. AI, she argues, can fill capacity gaps in analysis, coding, art and complex logic, effectively “supercharging” the development process while preserving the creative spark of the teams. Currently, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue is generated by the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % coming from Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden the studio roster, noting that the group bought Snowprint a few years ago and would welcome additional studios of similar calibre. Although Playsimple is presently a single studio, MTG is exploring the possibility of adding a third “district” to its gaming village, likely built around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data infrastructure. Regarding the game portfolio, Redin observes that the top‑ten mobile titles change little year over year, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of life ahead, the company also recognises the need for a fresh pipeline.
Plarium is preparing a new title for soft launch early next year, and Redin stresses that investing in new games is vital to retain the creative DNA of each studio. The broader market context is one of maturity.
With roughly three billion gamers worldwide, the sector remains attractive, though hyper‑growth has given way to modest single‑digit expansion. Redin concludes that sustained growth will require a dual approach: nurturing established evergreen franchises while continuously bringing new experiences to market, leveraging technology, talent and a collaborative village culture to stay competitive.