In February of the previous year, 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. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, that transaction was only the opening move in a much larger plan. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a clear vision after the Plarium deal: "post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size." She added that organic growth remains a priority, but achieving the next leap will require a series of additional acquisitions. The target horizon is aggressive – she aims to double the firm’s scale within roughly three to five years.
Redin noted that MTG had already pursued a similar ambition in 2021, during which the group tripled its size. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. A few years ago, the sector was enjoying double‑digit expansion, but growth has now settled into single‑digit territory, reflecting a market that is maturing quickly.
What once resembled a blue ocean of untapped opportunity now looks more like a crowded red sea, where gaining market share often means buying competitors or absorbing them entirely. Acquiring studios is the easy half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of botched mergers that resulted in studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap to avoid those pitfalls. Before snapping up Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (known for Forge of Empires), Snowprint (creator of 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 casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, now houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases. Redin says the rebranding is only the tip of the iceberg. Her goal is to forge "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community and belonging. Retaining talent and fostering a shared culture is critical when a company expands so rapidly through acquisitions.
"People are one of our biggest assets," Redin emphasized, adding that the company strives to create an environment where founders and development teams feel motivated to stay after a deal closes. She believes that a positive workplace is the only reliable way to keep those teams engaged and to unlock the full growth potential of each studio. Standardising technology across the group is another pillar of the strategy.
Since Redin took the helm in 2020, she has pushed for a common tech stack, but it was the scale brought by Plarium that finally allowed the vision to be executed fully. The approach is nuanced: Playsimple’s toolset differs markedly from Playamp’s, so the two divisions are being equipped with separate, purpose‑built platforms.
"Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for future casual acquisitions," Redin explained, while for the midcore side the company has selectively rolled out elements of Plarium’s suite across the group after a thorough internal assessment of where sharing makes sense. Key components of the shared infrastructure include Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system, both of which are being enhanced with new features. Redin believes that these shared tools will raise the overall quality and efficiency of the studios, allowing the group to focus resources where they generate the greatest return. "We want to super‑charge Playamp with a tech suite that elevates everything that was already done," she said.
Artificial intelligence is also reshaping MTG’s production pipeline. InnoGames, for example, has been using generative AI to create content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven content generation across its catalogue. Redin observes that AI adoption is now a common discussion point across the mobile sector. She describes generative AI as "significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before," and stresses that the challenge is finding the right balance – determining which workflows to augment with AI and which to keep untouched.
The company’s AI strategy focuses on layering intelligent tools onto existing processes such as A/B testing, graphic creation, quality assurance, and analytics. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, ensuring that breakthroughs can be rolled out quickly across the entire group.
Redin stresses the importance of allowing each studio the freedom to experiment within a unified AI framework, then sharing learnings to accelerate collective progress. When asked whether AI is now a prerequisite for competing in the hyper‑competitive mobile market, Redin cautioned against overstatement.
She believes that human creativity remains irreplaceable, but acknowledges that firms that ignore AI risk falling behind. "If we don’t embrace AI, we will be slower than our competitors," she said, adding that AI can help fill capacity gaps in coding, art, and complex logic, effectively supercharging the development engine. Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue currently stems from the Playamp division, while the casual side (Playsimple) contributes roughly 20 %. Redin is eager to broaden the roster of studios, noting that acquiring additional studios similar to Snowprint would be ideal.
She also hinted at the possibility of creating a third "district" within the gaming village, likely centred around the group’s core marketing and data capabilities. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains optimistic about growth. She points out that the top‑ten mobile games change very little year over year, reinforcing the company’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs.
While MTG continues to invest in established titles like Raid, it also recognises the need for a steady pipeline of new games to keep the creative DNA of its studios alive. Plarium, for instance, has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year.
Industry observers such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warn that the Western mobile market is “coasting,” with only a handful of new billion‑dollar games emerging from the West since 2020. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of launching fresh hits but argues that without new projects the studios would lose the creative spark that fuels long‑term success.
In summary, MTG’s roadmap combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, unified technology, and strategic AI adoption, all aimed at doubling the company’s size while preserving the innovative spirit of its many studios. The ambition is to build a cohesive, thriving "gaming village" where both legacy evergreen titles and new experiments can coexist and drive sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive mobile landscape.