In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, was only the opening act of a broader expansion agenda, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its overall size once more.
“We laid out the vision last year that after bringing Plarium into the fold we want to double again,” she said. “We’ll continue to drive organic growth, but achieving that will require further acquisitions.” The timeline she cited is aggressive – a three‑to‑five‑year window – yet she noted that MTG has already proven its capacity to scale quickly.
In 2021 the group set a similar target and, as Redin recalled, “we think we tripled.” The mobile market that once enjoyed double‑digit growth has now settled into single‑digit expansion, a sign that the sector is maturing. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded red sea, where growth often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Buying companies is the easier half of the equation; integrating them successfully is where many firms stumble, leading to studio closures and wasted investment.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear integration playbook. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a suite of mobile studios, 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”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences. The recent rebranding renamed these divisions Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the in‑app‑purchase‑driven games that now make up the bulk of MTG’s revenue. Redin emphasized that the restructuring goes far beyond a cosmetic rename.
The goal is to forge “one of the leading gaming villages,” a term she chose deliberately to convey a sense of community and belonging. Retaining talent and fostering a shared culture are critical when a company swallows numerous studios in rapid succession.
“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 thrive. When we acquire a studio we want the founders and teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business together.” A key pillar of the integration strategy is the standardisation of technology and tools across the MTG portfolio. Redin noted that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a common foundation can accelerate development and reduce overhead.
The push for standardisation began when she took the helm in 2020, but it was the scale afforded by the Plarium acquisition that finally allowed the vision to be rolled out fully. She acknowledged past industry missteps – such as Electronic Arts’ forced adoption of the Frostbite engine, which caused friction for teams working on titles like Mass Effect – and stressed that MTG is treating the two districts differently.
“Playsimple’s tech stack will become the baseline for future casual studios, while for Midcore we’re selectively rolling out parts of Plarium’s suite where it makes sense,” she said. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data system are already being shared across the group, with MTG adding new features to enhance functionality.
The intention is to boost the output of all studios by directing resources where they generate the greatest return. “We have amazing game makers across the group,” Redin remarked.
“With Playamp we want to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Artificial intelligence is another transformative force within MTG. InnoGames, for example, has been generating content for its mobile title Sunrise Village using AI for some time and is looking to broaden AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin sees this as part of a wider industry trend: AI is being woven into production pipelines for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and more. She described generative AI as “significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” but cautioned that the technology should complement, not replace, human creativity.
“Our talent brings imagination that AI can’t replicate yet,” she said. “If we ignore AI we’ll fall behind competitors; if we embrace it wisely, it can supercharge our speed and quality.” MTG’s revenue split reflects the strategic emphasis on midcore games: roughly 80 % comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single casual studio, Playsimple. Redin expressed a desire to broaden both sides. “We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint would be fantastic,” she noted.
On the casual front, she hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, perhaps built around the core capabilities of MTG’s marketing and data platforms. When asked about the future of mobile gaming titles, Redin observed that the top‑ten charts have remained remarkably stable. “Evergreen IPs have been our focus from day one,” she said.
“Raid Shadow Legends still has many years of life ahead, but we also need a pipeline of new games to keep the ecosystem vibrant.” She acknowledged the challenges of launching fresh hits, citing Supercell’s recent struggles with new titles despite heavy investment in incubation programs. Nonetheless, Redin believes that new releases are essential to preserve the creative DNA of each studio and to fuel growth in an otherwise maturing market. Overall, Redin is optimistic about the sector’s prospects.
While hyper‑growth may be a thing of the past, the global gaming audience still numbers around three billion players, and the market continues to compete for attention alongside streaming services and social media. “We see low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth depending on the data source,” she explained. “To exceed that baseline we must double down on strong evergreen IPs and also bring fresh games to market.
That balanced approach, powered by standardized tech and AI, is how we intend to double MTG’s size over the next few years.”