In February of last year, Sweden's mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million acquisition of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, while already significant, is only the first step in a broader expansion agenda, according to MTG's president and chief executive, Maria Redin.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a bold vision after the Plarium purchase: “Our goal is to double the size of MTG once more.” She added that organic growth will continue to be a priority, but achieving the target will require “more acquisitions” to fuel that expansion. The timeline is aggressive – she aims to hit the doubling milestone within roughly three to five years.
Redin noted that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to scale quickly, pointing to a three‑fold increase in size that the group achieved after setting a similar ambition in 2021. The mobile gaming landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years.
While the sector once enjoyed double‑digit growth rates, the market has now settled into single‑digit expansion, reflecting a mature environment where new entrants find it harder to carve out space. What was once a blue ocean of untapped users has turned into a crowded, competitive arena.
In such conditions, growth often means taking market share from rivals or, more commonly, acquiring them outright. Acquiring studios is the relatively straightforward part of the equation; the real challenge lies in integration.
The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in culture clashes, duplicated tech stacks, and ultimately studio closures. Redin insists MTG has learned from those missteps and devised a structured approach to bring new teams into the fold.
Before buying Plarium, 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 originally grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District for lighter, ad‑supported games and a Midcore District for titles that sit between casual and hardcore experiences, typically monetised through in‑app purchases (IAPs).
The recent rebranding renamed the Casual District as Playsimple – after the Indian studio behind WordTrip – and the Midcore District as Playamp. Playsimple now houses free‑to‑play, ad‑driven projects, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s IAP‑focused portfolio. Redin says the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it reflects a strategic ambition to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community and belonging, which she believes is essential for retaining talent after rapid expansion. “People are one of our biggest assets,” she explained, “and we must build 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 pillar of the integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across MTG’s growing network. Redin has pursued this vision since becoming CEO in 2020, but she notes that the Plarium acquisition gave the group the scale needed to roll out a unified tech framework. The aim is not to force every studio to use the exact same software, but to eliminate unnecessary duplication and create shared foundations where they make sense. “Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company,” she said.
The company is careful to differentiate the needs of its two districts. Playsimple’s tech stack will serve as the baseline for future casual acquisitions, while Playamp will adopt selected components from Plarium’s suite, deploying them selectively after thorough internal assessments.
This measured approach avoids the pitfalls seen at other publishers – for example, Electronic Arts’ forced adoption of the Frostbite engine, which caused major delays and frustration on projects like Mass Effect. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system have already been rolled out across MTG, and Redin says the group is adding new features and functionality to enhance them.
The goal is to maximise the return on investment by giving all studios access to a robust, shared infrastructure that can accelerate development, improve monetisation, and streamline user acquisition. Artificial intelligence is another area where MTG is investing heavily. InnoGames, for instance, has been using generative AI to produce all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is looking to expand AI‑generated assets across its other games. Redin observes that AI is becoming a standard part of the mobile production pipeline, with studios exploring its use for A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and more.
“Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” she said, adding that the company is embedding successful AI solutions from individual studios into the broader Plarium tech suite. While Redin acknowledges the excitement around AI, she cautions against over‑hyping its capabilities. “I often get asked whether gaming AI will eventually replace what we do,” she noted. “Creativity and human intuition are still essential and cannot be fully replicated by machines.” Nevertheless, she believes that embracing AI is necessary to keep pace with competitors and to address capacity constraints.
By augmenting human talent with AI‑driven tools, MTG hopes to accelerate development cycles and deliver higher‑quality experiences. Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She mentions the recent acquisition of Snowprint and expresses interest in finding “five more Snowprints around the world.” On the casual front, she notes that Playsimple is currently the sole studio in that district but still contributes a solid fifth of total revenue.
Looking ahead, Redin hints at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, perhaps focused on leveraging the company’s marketing platforms or data capabilities. When it comes to the game portfolio, Redin stresses that the top‑ten mobile titles have remained remarkably stable over the years, reinforcing MTG’s belief in evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of life left, the company continues to invest in new titles to keep the pipeline fresh. Plarium, for example, is preparing to soft‑launch a new game early next year.
The broader industry context is less rosy for new entrants. Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen has warned that the western mobile market is “coasting,” noting that only two of the 22 mobile games that have generated over $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, with projects like Squad Busters being discontinued after a brief launch. Redin acknowledges these challenges, stating that creating and scaling a hit game is difficult, but she believes that a steady flow of new titles is essential to preserve the creative DNA of each studio.
Finally, Redin reflects on the macro‑level outlook. With a global player base of three billion, the mobile gaming market remains compelling, even if hyper‑growth has given way to modest single‑digit expansion. “We won’t see the explosive growth of the past,” she concedes, “but by investing in strong evergreen franchises and continually bringing fresh games to market, we can still achieve meaningful growth.”