In February of the previous year, Sweden's mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in what MTG’s chief executive and president, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion playbook. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the vision set out after the Plarium acquisition was to double the group’s scale once again.
“We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she explained, adding that organic growth remains a priority but will be accelerated by further purchases. The target timeline is “about three to five years,” a stretch that she feels is realistic given MTG’s track record – the company tripled its size after a similar ambition was announced in 2021. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically over the past few years.
Where once the sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, growth has now settled into single‑digit territory, signalling a mature market that no longer offers a blue‑ocean of untapped users. In this environment, gaining market share increasingly means either taking customers from rivals or absorbing those rivals outright. Acquiring studios is the relatively straightforward part of the equation; integrating them without disrupting creative output is where many firms stumble.
The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that led to studio closures after poorly managed integrations. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before adding 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 grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences.
Following the latest restructuring, these districts have been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
Redin emphasizes that the rebranding is more than cosmetic. She wants to forge “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase that reflects a deliberate focus on community, employee retention, and cultural cohesion across the now‑expanded group. “Gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions,” she said.
“People are one of our biggest assets, but you also need to create an environment where they can thrive.” To that end, MTG aims to keep founders and development teams on board after a purchase, believing that the true growth story begins once the acquired studio is fully integrated and empowered. A major component of the integration effort is the standardisation of technology and tools across the MTG ecosystem. Redin notes that the push for common tech stacks began when she became CEO in 2020, but it was the scale afforded by the Plarium deal that allowed the vision to be executed fully. She acknowledges the pitfalls of forced standardisation – citing Electronic Arts’ problematic rollout of the Frostbite engine – but stresses that MTG tailors its approach to the needs of each district.
Playsimple’s tech stack will serve as a foundation for future casual acquisitions, while the Midcore (Playamp) side will selectively adopt parts of Plarium’s technology suite where they add clear value. Key Plarium platforms, such as the GoGame marketing system and the PDP data platform, are already being rolled out across the group, with additional features being added to enhance their utility.
Redin explains that the goal is to “put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” leveraging the strengths of existing developers while providing them with a robust, shared technical backbone. Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s modernization strategy. Generative AI tools are already reshaping content pipelines at studios like InnoGames, where AI has been used to produce assets for the mobile title Sunrise Village and is being expanded across the company. Redin says AI is becoming embedded in many production processes – from A/B testing and graphics generation to quality assurance – and that successful AI solutions from individual studios are being integrated into the broader Plarium tech suite.
When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creators, Redin is cautious. She believes creativity remains a uniquely human trait that AI cannot replicate, yet she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors. “If we don’t embrace AI, we are going to be slower than what our competitors are,” she said, adding that AI can help alleviate capacity shortfalls in coding, art, and complex logic, thereby “supercharging” the development pipeline.
Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s earnings now stem from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % coming from the nascent Playsimple unit. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She cites the recent acquisition of Snowprint and expresses interest in finding “five more Snowprints around the world.” On the casual front, she envisions adding more studios to increase scale, and even hints at the possibility of a third district that would build on the core capabilities of the existing marketing and data platforms.
Despite the rapid consolidation of the mobile market, Redin observes that the top‑ten games list remains remarkably stable year after year. This consistency reinforces MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual properties – games that generate revenue over many years. While Raid: Shadow Legends is expected to have a long tail, Redin stresses that MTG will continue to invest in new titles to keep the pipeline fresh. She acknowledges the difficulty of launching successful new games, noting that even industry leaders like Supercell have struggled to replicate past hits with recent releases.
Nevertheless, Redin argues that new games are essential for maintaining a studio’s creative DNA and for sustaining growth in a market that has shifted from hyper‑growth to modest single‑digit expansion. “We have three billion gamers out there,” she says. “It is a compelling market, even if we no longer see the explosive growth of the early mobile era. To grow beyond low‑single‑digit rates, we must keep investing in strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh experiences to players.” In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin’s leadership combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI‑enhanced production, and a balanced portfolio of proven evergreen games and new titles.
The company aims to double its size within the next few years, create a cohesive “gaming village” that retains talent, and leverage cutting‑edge tools to stay competitive in a mature yet still sizable mobile gaming market.