In February of the previous year, the Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the wildly popular hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, appears to be only the opening move in a broader expansion plan. "Last year we set a vision that, after bringing Plarium into the fold, we want to double our size once more," MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin told GamesIndustry.biz.
"We intend to keep driving organic growth, but to achieve that we’ll need to pursue additional acquisitions." Redin’s timetable for this doubling is aggressive: she aims to hit the target within roughly three to five years. The ambition is not new – MTG set a similar goal in 2021 and, according to Redin, succeeded in tripling its scale. A few years ago the mobile gaming market was expanding at double‑digit rates, but growth has now settled into single‑digit territory, signalling a mature sector.
What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned into a red‑ocean where growth often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them entirely. Acquiring studios is the easy part; weaving them into a coherent organization is the real challenge. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of failed integrations that ended in studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers such as InnoGames (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. The districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases. The rebranding goes deeper than a name change.
Redin says the goal is to forge "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community. "It is meant to create something people want to belong to," she explained, emphasizing that employee retention and cultural integration are top priorities for a company that has been buying studios at a rapid pace. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin noted. "People are our greatest asset, but we also need to provide an environment where they can thrive.
When we acquire a studio we want the founders and teams to stay on board, because that is when the real story begins – scaling the business. The only way to keep them is to make sure they enjoy the environment we create." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio. Redin has pursued this vision since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the Plarium acquisition gave the group the scale needed to roll it out fully.
The initiative mirrors past attempts at tech unification, such as Electronic Arts’ push to adopt the Frostbite engine, which caused friction for teams working on titles like Mass Effect. Redin is careful to differentiate the needs of the two districts: Playsimple’s stack will become the baseline for future casual acquisitions, while Playamp will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s technology suite. "We performed a thorough internal assessment to decide where sharing tools makes sense and where it doesn’t," Redin said. "Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑data platform are now used across MTG, and we are adding new features to enhance them.
Our aim is to invest where we get the biggest return on effort." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven creation across its catalogue. Redin observes that AI is being woven into many stages of production – from A/B testing and graphics to quality assurance – and that successful AI tools from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite. "We allow studios to experiment within an overarching AI framework, then share learnings and roll out the best solutions company‑wide," she explained.
When asked whether AI could eventually replace human designers, Redin was cautious. "Creativity remains a uniquely human trait. AI won’t do everything, but ignoring it would leave us lagging behind competitors. It can super‑charge our work, fill capacity gaps, and accelerate development without sacrificing the creative spark that defines great games." Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides. "We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like that would be fantastic.
On the casual side we’d like to add scale as well," she said. Although Playsimple currently consists of a single studio, Redin hinted at the possibility of a third district in the future, one that would leverage the company’s marketing platforms or data capabilities. When it comes to the game pipeline, Redin acknowledges that the mobile top‑ten chart changes little over time. "Evergreen IPs remain our core thesis," she said, noting that titles like Raid have many years of life left.
Still, she stresses the importance of a fresh pipeline. "We must keep developing new games; otherwise we lose the creative DNA of our studios." The broader market context is challenging. The western mobile sector is often described as "coasting," with only two of the 22 titles that have surpassed $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, as evidenced by the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin concedes that launching successful new titles is difficult, but she believes it is essential for long‑term growth. "We’ve moved from hyper‑growth to a steadier, low‑single‑digit expansion. With three billion gamers worldwide, the market is still compelling, even if we compete for attention with streaming services and social media.
To grow beyond the modest baseline, we must double‑down on strong evergreen IPs while also delivering fresh experiences." In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin blends aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production. By nurturing a "gaming village" where talent feels valued and tools are shared, the company aims to double its size within the next few years while maintaining a balanced portfolio of proven evergreen hits and promising new titles.