In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection 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, following the Plarium acquisition, we want to double our size again," MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin told GamesIndustry.biz.
"We’ll continue to drive organic growth, but to do that we’ll need to pursue further acquisitions." Redin’s timetable for that doubling is aggressive: she targets a three‑to‑five‑year horizon. The Swedish group already has a track record of rapid scaling – Redin notes that MTG pursued a similar goal in 2021 and ultimately tripled its scale. A few years ago the mobile sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, but growth has since slowed to single‑digit percentages, signalling a market that is maturing quickly.
What once resembled a blue‑ocean of untapped users now feels more like a crowded, red‑lined arena where any further expansion must come from taking market share from rivals 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 failed mergers that resulted in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a suite of mobile studios, including InnoGames (creator of 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 (midcore being 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 WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the in‑app‑purchase‑driven games that make up the bulk of MTG’s portfolio.
The rebranding is more than cosmetic. Redin says the aim is to build “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term village is intentional – it is meant to evoke a community that people want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering a sense of belonging are critical for a company that has been acquiring studios at speed. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explains.
"People are our greatest asset, but we must also create an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a company we want the founders and their teams to stay on board, because that’s when the real story begins and we can scale the business further.
The only way to ensure they stay is to make the workplace enjoyable." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio – a project that gained momentum after the Plarium deal gave the group enough scale to roll out a unified tech stack. This standardisation effort has been on Redin’s agenda since she became CEO in 2020, but Plarium’s size made the vision feasible.
Industry experience shows the pitfalls of forced tech uniformity. Electronic Arts’ push to adopt its proprietary Frostbite engine across all studios caused major headaches for teams working on titles such as Mass Effect. Redin is mindful that the technology needs of Playsimple differ dramatically from those of Playamp, so the two districts are being treated separately. "Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual‑district acquisitions," she says.
"For Midcore we have selected parts of Plarium’s suite to roll out group‑wide, but we are doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio. We conducted a thorough internal assessment to decide where collaboration makes sense and where it does not." Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑data platform are already being used across MTG, and Redin notes that the group is adding new features and functionality to these tools. The goal is to boost the productivity of all studios. "We want to focus our effort where we get the biggest bang for our buck," she adds.
"We have fantastic game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to supercharge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do." Generative AI is another major lever. InnoGames, for example, has been generating all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village with AI for some time and is now looking to expand AI‑generated content across its portfolio. Redin observes that this mirrors a broader trend in mobile gaming, where AI is being woven into production pipelines.
"Most of the industry is having similar conversations about how to adopt new technology," she says. "Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before. The challenge is finding the right balance – where do we change the workflow, and where do we keep the existing process?
Ultimately it’s about using new tech to make our games more relevant to players and, ideally, to bring new titles to market faster and better." MTG’s approach is to layer AI onto existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite for company‑wide use.
"We allow studios to experiment within the boundaries of our overarching AI framework," Redin explains. "When a studio develops something that works well, we can quickly roll it out across the group." When asked whether AI has become a prerequisite for competing in the fast‑moving mobile market, Redin cautions against fatalism.
"I often hear the question, will gaming AI replace what we do? I don’t think so. Creativity remains a uniquely human strength.
However, if we ignore AI we will fall behind competitors. Embracing AI lets us maintain our creative vision while leveraging new levels of technology." She points to concrete examples where AI can fill capacity gaps – from coding and art creation to advanced game logic – and argues that this boost is essential for maintaining a pipeline of high‑quality releases.
Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp district, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden the studio roster, noting that the group recently acquired Snowprint and would welcome additional studios of a similar profile.
She also hints at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, likely centred around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the rapid changes in the market, the composition of the mobile top‑ten remains remarkably stable. "Every year we run the same analysis and see the same games at the top," Redin says. "Our thesis from day one has been to back evergreen IPs." Nevertheless, MTG still values new IP development.
While Raid: Shadow Legends has many years of life left, the company recognises the need for a fresh pipeline. Plarium, for instance, has a new title slated for soft launch early next year.
Industry observers like Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warn that Western mobile developers are “coasting,” with only two of the 22 billion‑dollar titles since 2020 originating from the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, as illustrated by the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of creating and scaling successful new games but stresses that a lack of investment would erode the creative DNA of the studios. "Investing in new games keeps the passion alive," she asserts.
Looking ahead, Redin believes the market remains compelling despite its maturity. With three billion gamers worldwide, there is still room for growth, though not the hyper‑growth of earlier years.
She predicts low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth rates and says exceeding that baseline will require a dual focus on strong evergreen titles and the continual introduction of fresh games.