In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster 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 much larger playbook. “We set out the vision last year that, after bringing Plarium into the fold, we want to double the company’s size again,” Redin told GamesIndustry.biz.
“We’ll keep pushing organic growth, but to hit that target we’ll need to make further acquisitions.” The timeline she cites is aggressive: the goal is to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. Redin notes that MTG has already demonstrated the capacity to scale quickly – the group tripled its size after a similar ambition was launched in 2021.
The mobile sector, once characterised by double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the market matures. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will largely come from capturing rivals’ market share 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 acquisitions that ended in studio closures due to poor integration. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap.
Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios, 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 purely casual and hardcore experiences. The districts have since 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 in‑app‑purchase‑driven games that now make up the bulk of MTG’s revenue.
Redin says the rebranding is more than cosmetic; the aim is to forge “one of the leading gaming villages.” The phrasing is intentional – it is meant to create a sense of community that employees want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering a shared culture is especially critical for a company that has grown through rapid studio acquisitions.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explains. "People are our greatest asset, but we also have to build an environment where they can thrive.
When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins – the scaling phase. The only way to keep them is to give them a workplace they enjoy." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and toolsets across its portfolio – a move Redin began championing when she took the helm in 2020. The Plarium acquisition gave the group the scale needed to roll the vision out comprehensively.
Standardisation can be a double‑edged sword. Electronic Arts famously forced its studios to adopt the Frostbite engine, creating friction and delays on projects like Mass Effect. Redin acknowledges the risk but points out that the tech needs of Playsimple differ dramatically from those of Playamp, so the two divisions are being treated separately. "Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual‑district studios we bring in," she says.
"For the midcore side, we’ve selected parts of Plarium’s suite to roll out group‑wide, but we’re doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio. We performed a thorough internal assessment to decide where tool sharing makes sense and where it doesn’t." Key components of Plarium’s infrastructure – the GoGame marketing platform and a product‑detail‑page data system – are already being used across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin stresses that the objective is to maximise return on investment by giving studios the best possible technical foundation. "We have amazing game makers across the group," she notes.
"With Playamp we want to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s current strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is planning to broaden AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin observes that AI integration is now a common discussion point throughout the mobile industry. "Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before," she says.
"We’re all trying to find the right balance – where to change workflows, where to keep them, and where AI can add the most value. Ultimately it’s about using new technology to make our games more relevant to players and, ideally, to bring new titles to market faster and better." MTG’s AI strategy focuses on layering AI capabilities onto existing pipelines for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance and analytics.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid diffusion of best practices. "We let studios experiment within our overarching AI framework, then share learnings and roll out the most effective tools across the company," Redin explains. When asked whether AI has become a prerequisite for competing in the fast‑moving mobile space, Redin cautions against fatalism. "I often get asked if gaming AI will eventually replace everything we do.
I don’t think so – creativity remains uniquely human. But if we ignore AI, we’ll fall behind competitors who are leveraging it to accelerate development." She adds that AI can help alleviate capacity shortfalls, offering assistance in coding, art production and complex logic, thereby “supercharging” the creative process while preserving the human spark that drives innovation. 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 expand both sides.
She cites Snowprint as a model: "We bought Snowprint a few years ago; if we could find five more studios like Snowprint around the world, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we’d also like to add scale." Currently Playsimple is a single studio, yet it already contributes a fifth of the group’s revenue. Redin hints at the possibility of a third “district” in the future – a new pillar that would build on MTG’s core capabilities in marketing and data analytics, though the exact shape of that addition remains under discussion. From a product perspective, the outlook is familiar.
The mobile top‑ten charts change little year over year, and MTG’s philosophy from day one has been to back evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of life ahead, the company also recognises the need for a steady pipeline of fresh titles. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen recently warned that the Western mobile market is “coasting,” noting that only two of the 22 games that have earned over $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled – the Squad Busters project was shut down after its 2024 launch.
Redin acknowledges the difficulty: "It’s hard to make a successful game and then scale it. But if we stop investing in new games we lose part of the DNA that fuels creativity and passion." Looking at the macro environment, Redin believes growth is still possible despite a maturing market.
"We have three billion gamers worldwide – it’s a compelling market. Yes, we compete for attention with streaming services and social media, but I still see room for growth. The hyper‑growth phase is over; we’re now seeing low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit expansion. To exceed that, we must keep investing in strong evergreen IPs and also bring new games to market." In summary, MTG’s strategy under Maria Redin blends aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI‑enhanced workflows, and a balanced portfolio of evergreen and new titles.
The company aims to double its size within the next few years while cultivating a unified "gaming village" that retains talent, accelerates innovation, and positions MTG as a dominant force in the evolving mobile gaming landscape.