In February of last 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. That deal, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion plan, according to MTG’s president and chief executive officer, Maria Redin. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the vision set out after the Plarium acquisition was to double the company’s scale once more. “We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she said.
“And yes, we want to fuel and continue to drive organic growth, but in order to do that, we will need to do more acquisitions.” The timeline she proposes is aggressive: the target is to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. MTG, she noted, has already demonstrated the ability to hit lofty ambitions – the firm set a similar goal in 2021 and, in Redin’s words, “I think we tripled.” The mobile gaming market, once a blue‑ocean of double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth, reflecting a maturing landscape. The shift means that future growth will likely come from taking market share from rivals or, more directly, by absorbing them. While buying companies can be straightforward, the real challenge lies in integration; the industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor post‑deal integration.
MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios before the Plarium deal, including InnoGames (Forge of Empires), Snowprint (Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6) and Futureplay (Merge Gardens). These studios were previously grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences. Under Redin’s rebranding, these districts have been renamed 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 stresses that the rebranding is only the tip of the iceberg. Her ambition is to craft “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community and belonging. The emphasis is on retaining talent and fostering a culture where newly acquired teams feel at home.
“People are for sure one of our biggest assets, but then you also need to make sure you create an environment for them to thrive in,” Redin explained. “We buy our companies, which also means that we want the founders and the teams to stay on board post‑acquisition, because that’s when the true exciting story should start and you continue to scale the businesses.” A key component of the integration strategy is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin, who became CEO in 2020, has long advocated for a shared tech stack, but it was the scale afforded by the Plarium acquisition that finally allowed MTG to roll out the vision fully. She acknowledges the pitfalls of forced standardisation, citing Electronic Arts’ troubled rollout of the Frostbite engine as a cautionary example.
Consequently, MTG treats the tech needs of Playsimple and Playamp as distinct, tailoring solutions to each district’s requirements. For the casual side, Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve as the baseline for future studios entering that district. In the midcore arena, MTG has selected portions of Plarium’s technology suite to deploy group‑wide, but only after a careful internal assessment of where collaboration makes sense. “We’ve done a very thorough internal assessment on where it makes sense that we collaborate and share technical tools, and where it doesn’t make sense,” Redin said.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system have already been rolled out across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to suit the broader portfolio. The goal is to maximise the return on investment by giving studios a robust, shared infrastructure while still allowing each team to innovate.
Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s forward‑looking strategy. Generative AI tools are already being used at InnoGames, where all content for Sunrise Village is produced with AI assistance, and the company plans to broaden AI‑driven content creation across its titles.
Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in the production pipelines of most mobile developers. “Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool that we got access to before,” she noted, adding that the industry is still figuring out the optimal balance between workflow changes and preserving creative freedom.
MTG’s approach is to layer AI onto existing processes – for example, using AI for A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and analytics – and then propagate successful AI‑driven solutions from one studio to the rest of the group. “We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as it fits into our overarching AI framework on the dos and don’ts,” Redin explained. “Then we share the learnings, and when one company’s developing something really good, we make sure we can very quickly roll that out on a broader scale.” 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 the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do?
And I actually don’t think so,” she said. “What is important is that our talent, our workforce has an amazing creativity. That doesn’t sit yet within AI.” Nevertheless, she believes that failing to adopt AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors, and that AI can act as a catalyst for speed and quality.
Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now stems from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. “We bought Snowprint a couple of years back, and if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic,” she said. On the casual side, she envisions adding more studios to the Playsimple district and even contemplating a third district that would leverage the group’s core capabilities in marketing and data.
Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains optimistic about growth opportunities. She points out that the top‑ten mobile games list changes little year over year, underscoring the value of evergreen IPs. While MTG will continue to invest in proven titles like Raid, the company also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline. Plarium, for instance, is preparing to soft‑launch a new title early next year.
Industry observers such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen have warned that the Western mobile sector is “coasting,” with only two of the 22 games that have surpassed $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West. Yet Redin argues that abandoning new‑game development would erode the creative DNA of MTG’s studios. “Investing in new games is how you retain creativity, passion, and drive,” she asserted. In summary, Redin’s roadmap for MTG combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, strategic rebranding, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production.
The aim is to double the company’s size within a few years while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit of each studio. As the mobile gaming market settles into modest single‑digit growth, MTG’s blend of evergreen titles and fresh launches, supported by a unified tech and cultural framework, positions it to navigate the evolving landscape and continue delivering engaging experiences to the three‑billion‑strong global gamer audience.