In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collection game Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin, that deal is only the opening chapter of a much larger growth narrative. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s post‑Plarium vision is to double its scale once again, aiming for a roughly three‑to‑five‑year horizon. “We set the vision last year that after the Plarium acquisition we want to double yet again in size,” she said.
“We will keep driving organic growth, but to do that we’ll need to make additional acquisitions.” The ambition is not without precedent. In 2021 MTG set a similar target and, as Redin noted, the group actually tripled its size during that period.
The mobile market, which a few years ago was expanding at double‑digit rates, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the sector matures. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded, competitive arena where expansion often means taking market share from rivals—or absorbing them outright. Acquiring companies is the easy part; the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly. The games industry is littered with cautionary tales of mergers that resulted in studio closures because of cultural clashes or mismatched processes.
MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap for successful integration. Before buying Plarium, 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).
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.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now represent the bulk of MTG’s earnings. Redin stresses that the rebranding is only the surface of a deeper cultural project. She wants to create “one of the leading gaming villages,” a term she says is meant to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees. Retaining talent is critical for a company that has grown through rapid studio acquisitions.
“Gaming is the best marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” Redin explained. “People are one of our biggest assets, but they also 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 and we can scale the business further.
The only way to ensure they stay is to build a workplace they enjoy.” A key pillar of MTG’s integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Since Redin took the helm in 2020, she has advocated for a unified tech stack, but it was only after the Plarium deal that MTG reached the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. The company is careful not to repeat the mistakes of other giants; for example, Electronic Arts’ push to force all studios onto its proprietary Frostbite engine caused major friction on projects like Mass Effect.
To avoid similar pitfalls, MTG treats the two districts separately. Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve as the baseline for any future casual‑district acquisitions, while Playamp will adopt selected components of Plarium’s technology suite, deployed selectively after a thorough internal assessment of where shared tools make sense. “We’ve done a very detailed review of where collaboration on technical tools adds value and where it doesn’t,” Redin said.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being rolled out across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to suit the broader portfolio. Redin believes these shared services will boost the productivity of all studios: “We want to focus our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck. We have amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite they can leverage, elevating everything that’s already been done.” Artificial intelligence is another transformative force within MTG.
InnoGames, for instance, has been using generative AI to create all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven content creation across its other games. Redin sees this as part of a broader industry trend where AI is woven into the production pipeline. “Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” she noted.
“We’re all figuring out how to balance it—where to change workflows, where to keep them, and how to use AI to make our games more relevant, faster, and ideally better.” The company’s AI strategy focuses on layering intelligent tools onto existing processes such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite for company‑wide use. Redin emphasised the importance of flexibility: “We need to let studios experiment within our overarching AI framework.
When one team develops something great, we can quickly roll it out across the group.” When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin was cautious. “I often get the question, ‘Will gaming AI be able to do everything you do?’ I don’t think so.
Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate. But if we ignore AI we’ll fall behind competitors. AI can supercharge our work, filling capacity gaps in analysis, coding, art, and logic, allowing us to keep delivering amazing games.” Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the casual side, which currently consists of a single studio—Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides. She mentioned that MTG bought Snowprint a few years ago and would love to replicate that success by finding “five more Snowprints around the world.” She also hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, likely built around the core capabilities of MTG’s marketing and data platforms.
Despite the rapid changes in the market, the top‑ten mobile games list remains remarkably stable. Redin explained that the company’s long‑term thesis has always been to back evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of life left, MTG continues to invest in new titles to keep the pipeline fresh. The industry, however, faces headwinds: Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that western mobile developers are “coasting,” with only two of the 22 titles that have earned over $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, as seen with the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of launching successful new games but insists that a pipeline of fresh titles is essential to preserve studio DNA, creativity, and passion.
“We have a new Plarium title soft‑launching early next year,” she said. “Investing in new games keeps the creative spark alive and drives growth beyond the modest single‑digit percentages we now see in the market.” Looking ahead, Redin remains optimistic about the overall gaming landscape. With roughly three billion gamers worldwide, the market is still compelling, even if hyper‑growth phases are unlikely to return. “We’ll probably see low to mid‑single‑digit growth depending on the data source,” she concluded.
“To exceed that, we need to double‑down on strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh experiences to players.”