In February of the previous 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 what the company describes as an aggressive expansion plan. "Last year we set a vision that, after bringing Plarium into the fold, we want to double our size again," Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, told GamesIndustry.biz.
"We will continue to drive organic growth, but to do that we need to make further acquisitions." Redin’s timetable for that doubling is bold: she aims to hit the target within roughly three to five years. The Swedish group already has a track record of rapid scaling – in 2021 the firm announced a similar ambition and, according to Redin, ended up tripling its size. A few years ago the mobile market was expanding at double‑digit rates, but growth has now slowed to single digits, signalling a maturing sector.
What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will likely come from taking market share from rivals or absorbing them entirely. Acquiring companies is the easy half of the equation; integrating them successfully is notoriously difficult.
The games industry is littered with stories of failed mergers that led to studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap for integration. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio 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).
Those studios were grouped into two “districts”: the Casual District and the Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between pure casual and hardcore experiences. These districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles. Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, focusing on games that generate revenue through in‑app purchases.
The renaming is more than cosmetic; Redin says the goal is to create "one of the leading gaming villages," a community‑oriented concept designed to boost employee retention and foster a sense of belonging among the many teams that have been brought together. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explained.
"People are our biggest 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 the real story begins after the purchase.
The only way to keep them is to make that environment enjoyable." A parallel effort underway since Redin took the helm in 2020 is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. The Plarium acquisition gave MTG the scale needed to roll out this vision fully.
While tech uniformity can be risky – EA’s attempt to force all its studios onto the Frostbite engine caused major headaches – MTG is handling the two districts separately, recognising that the tech stack for casual games differs dramatically from that required for midcore titles. "Playsimple’s tech foundation will become the baseline for any future casual studio we bring in," Redin said.
"For the midcore side we have adopted parts of Plarium’s suite, but we are deploying it selectively to ensure it adds value for every studio. We conducted a thorough internal review to decide where shared tools make sense and where they do not." Key components of Plarium’s infrastructure – the GoGame marketing platform and the product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system – are now being used across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality.
Redin emphasised that the aim is to concentrate effort where it yields the greatest return, leveraging the strong development talent already present in the group while supercharging it with a unified tech suite. Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s modernization drive. InnoGames, for example, has been generating content for its mobile title Sunrise Village with AI for some time and plans to expand AI‑generated assets across its portfolio.
Redin noted that AI is becoming embedded in production pipelines throughout the mobile sector, and MTG is no exception. "Across the industry we are all discussing how to adopt new technology in our workflows," she said. "Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we have previously accessed.
The challenge is finding the right balance – where to adjust our workflow, where to keep it unchanged, and where AI can add the most value. Ultimately, it’s about using new tech to make our games more relevant to players and to accelerate the delivery of high‑quality titles." MTG’s AI strategy focuses on augmenting 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 dissemination of best practices throughout the organisation. When asked whether AI has become a prerequisite for competing in the fast‑moving mobile market, Redin cautioned against over‑hyping the technology.
"I often get asked if gaming AI will eventually replace everything we do. I don’t think so. Creative talent remains essential and cannot be fully replicated by AI. However, if we ignore AI we risk falling behind competitors.
Embracing it lets us maintain pace and even accelerate it." She illustrated how AI can fill capacity gaps, citing examples such as code generation, art creation and advanced logic handling. "AI supercharges our work, but we still rely on the creativity, innovation and vision of our teams," Redin affirmed. Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin expressed a desire to broaden both sides of the business.
"We bought Snowprint a few years ago; if we could find five more studios like Snowprint worldwide, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we’d also like to add scale. Currently Playsimple is a single studio, yet it already contributes a fifth of our revenue." Looking ahead, Redin hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, though the exact focus is still being defined. "It would likely build on our core capabilities – either leveraging our marketing platforms or our data assets." Despite the ambition, the market’s top‑ten mobile games remain remarkably stable year after year.
Redin reiterated MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual properties: "Our thesis from day one has been that evergreen IPs are the backbone of sustainable success." That said, the company does not ignore the need for fresh titles. Plarium is preparing to soft‑launch a new game early next year, and Redin stressed that a pipeline of new releases is essential to keep creative energy flowing and to preserve the DNA of each studio. The broader industry context is sobering. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the Western mobile market is "coasting," noting that only two of the 22 mobile games surpassing $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originated in the West.
Supercell itself has struggled to turn new incubated projects into hits, with the recent shutdown of Squad Busters serving as a cautionary tale. Redin acknowledged the difficulty: "It’s hard to make a successful game and then scale it. But abandoning new‑game investment would erode the creative spark that differentiates studios." In summary, Redin sees a mature but still sizable market – roughly three billion gamers worldwide – and believes growth will continue, albeit at a slower, single‑digit rate rather than the explosive bursts of the past.
To exceed that baseline, MTG plans to double down on its strong evergreen titles while simultaneously nurturing new releases, supported by a unified tech framework, AI‑enhanced workflows and a culture that values both creativity and data‑driven insight.