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. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer, that deal was only the opening move in a broader expansion plan. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its overall size again within a three‑to‑five‑year horizon. “We want to keep driving organic growth, but to do that we’ll need to make more acquisitions,” she explained.
The target is bold, yet she notes that MTG has already demonstrated a capacity for rapid scaling: a similar goal announced in 2021 resulted in a tripling of the business. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. What was once a high‑growth, double‑digit arena has slowed to single‑digit growth as the market matures. The blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will largely come from capturing competitors’ market share—either by out‑performing them or by absorbing them outright.
Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; integrating them successfully is where many firms stumble. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that led to culture clashes, duplicated technology stacks, and ultimately studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap to avoid those pitfalls.
Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, 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 grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences.
The recent rebranding renamed these divisions Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases. The rebranding is more than a cosmetic change. Redin says the goal is to build “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase chosen deliberately to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees.
Retaining talent is crucial for a company that has grown through rapid studio purchases. “People are one of our biggest assets,” Redin emphasized.
“We need to create an environment where they thrive, and that means keeping founders and teams on board after an acquisition so the real story can begin.” Standardising technology across the newly expanded group is another pillar of the strategy. Since Redin took the helm in 2020, MTG has been working toward a unified tech stack, but the scale required to roll it out fully only arrived with Plarium’s addition. The company is now able to apply common tools where it makes sense, while still respecting the distinct needs of the Playsimple and Playamp divisions. Redin acknowledges the risks of forced standardisation, citing EA’s problematic push to adopt the Frostbite engine across disparate studios as an example of what can go wrong.
To avoid similar issues, MTG is taking a selective approach. The Playsimple division will serve as a template for future casual acquisitions, while the Midcore side is adopting parts of Plarium’s tech suite on a case‑by‑case basis.
An internal assessment determined which tools could be shared and which should remain bespoke. Two of Plarium’s platforms—the GoGame marketing system and a product‑detail‑page data engine—are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin believes that concentrating resources on the most impactful technologies will amplify the output of all studios. “We have amazing game makers across the group,” she said.
“With Playamp we want to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Artificial intelligence is also reshaping MTG’s workflow. InnoGames, for instance, has been using generative AI to produce content for Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI‑driven content creation.
Redin notes that AI is being woven into many production pipelines, from A/B testing and graphics generation to quality assurance. Successful AI tools from individual studios are being incorporated into the shared Plarium suite, allowing rapid diffusion of best practices. When asked whether AI could eventually replace human creativity, Redin cautioned against such a deterministic view. “Our talent’s creativity isn’t something AI can replicate yet,” she said.
“But if we ignore AI, we’ll fall behind competitors. The technology can supercharge our work, fill capacity gaps, and help us deliver games faster and better.” Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the casual Playsimple side contributing roughly 20 %. Redin is eager to broaden both arms.
She mentions the recent Snowprint acquisition and expresses interest in finding “five more Snowprints” worldwide. On the casual front, she envisions adding more studios to increase scale, noting that Playsimple is currently a single studio. Looking ahead, Redin hints at the possibility of a third district within the gaming village, one that would leverage core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. The exact shape of this future unit remains undefined, but the intent is to keep the ecosystem flexible and growth‑oriented.
Despite the market’s maturation, Redin remains confident in the sector’s long‑term prospects. The top‑ten mobile games list changes little year over year, reinforcing her belief in evergreen IPs. While MTG will continue to invest in proven titles like Raid, it also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline.
Plarium is slated to soft‑launch a new game early next year, and Redin stresses that new releases keep studio DNA vibrant, preserving creativity and passion. 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 region since 2020. Yet Redin argues that growth, albeit slower, is still attainable.
“We have three billion gamers worldwide,” she says. “The market is compelling, even if we’re competing for attention with streaming services and social media. To outpace low‑single‑digit growth, we must double‑down on evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh experiences to market.” In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI augmentation, and a balanced portfolio of established and new titles—all aimed at doubling the company’s size within the next few years while maintaining a vibrant, collaborative culture.