In February of the previous year, Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, that deal was only the opening move in a much larger plan.
"Last year we set a vision that, following the Plarium acquisition, we want to double our size once more," Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. "We’ll keep pushing organic growth, but to hit that target we’ll need to make further purchases." The timeline for the expansion is aggressive: Redin aims to achieve the doubling within three to five years. She noted that MTG has already proven capable of rapid scaling, recalling a 2021 ambition that resulted in the company tripling its size. A few years ago the mobile gaming sector was enjoying double‑digit growth, but that momentum has slowed to single‑digit figures as the market matures.
What was once a blue ocean has turned a deep red, meaning that future growth will often require taking market share from rivals—or absorbing them outright. Acquiring companies is the easy part; integrating them successfully is where many firms stumble. The industry is littered with stories of botched integrations that led to studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio 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 referring to games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). Those divisions have now been rebranded as Playsimple – named after the India‑based WordTrip studio – and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which constitute the bulk of MTG’s earnings. The rebranding is only the tip of the iceberg.
Redin says the ultimate goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community that people want to belong to. In practice, this translates into a strong emphasis on employee retention and seamless integration, a critical concern 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 explained. "People are our biggest asset, but we also need to provide 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 – scaling the business. The only way to keep them is to build a workplace they enjoy." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio.
Redin has pursued this effort since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the scale required to roll it out fully only materialised after Plarium joined the group. Standardisation can be a double‑edged sword.
Electronic Arts famously forced its studios to adopt the Frostbite engine, creating friction on projects such as 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 acquisitions," she said. "For the midcore side we’ve selected parts of Plarium’s technology to roll out across the group, but we’re doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio. We’ve conducted a thorough internal assessment to decide where sharing tools makes sense and where it does not." Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being deployed throughout MTG, with additional features and functionality being added. Redin believes this shared infrastructure will boost the output of all studios.
"We want to invest where we get the biggest bang for our buck," she noted. "We have fantastic game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s strategy.
InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its mobile title Sunrise Village for some time and is looking to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin says this mirrors a broader industry trend where AI is being woven into the production pipeline. "Most of the companies I talk to are having similar conversations about how to adopt new technology," she observed. "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 it the same? 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 AI approach focuses on layering intelligent tools onto existing processes 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 broader use. "We allow our studios to experiment within the overarching AI framework we’ve defined," Redin explained.
"When a team discovers a breakthrough, we can quickly roll it out across the company." When asked whether AI has become indispensable in the hyper‑competitive mobile arena, Redin was cautious. "It’s dangerous to claim AI can replace everything," she said. "Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate.
But if we ignore AI, we’ll fall behind competitors. Embracing it lets us keep our creative vision while leveraging unprecedented technological power." She added that AI can help address capacity shortfalls in areas such as analysis, coding, art production and complex logic, effectively super‑charging the development pipeline.
Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, while the casual side (currently represented by a single studio, Playsimple) accounts for roughly 20 %. Redin is eager to broaden both sides. "We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; if we could find five more studios like Snowprint worldwide, that would be fantastic.
On the casual front we want to add more scale as well," she said. She hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the “gaming village,” though the exact nature of that addition remains undefined.
The new district would likely build on existing core capabilities, perhaps leveraging the marketing platforms or data assets already in place. Regarding the games themselves, Redin noted that the top‑ten mobile titles change very little year after year.
"Our thesis from day one has been a belief in evergreen IPs," she said. "Raid has many years left, but we also need a pipeline of fresh games." Creating new hits is increasingly difficult. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the Western mobile market is “coasting,” with only two of the 22 mobile games that have generated over $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled; its Squad Busters project was shuttered after a brief 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges the challenge: "It’s hard to make a successful game and then scale it," she said. "Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year.
Not investing in new games would erode the creative DNA of our studios. Maintaining that creative spark is essential." Looking at the broader market, Redin believes growth is still possible despite the sector’s maturation.
"We have three billion gamers worldwide, so the market remains compelling," she affirmed. "We do compete for attention with streaming services and social media, but I still see room for growth.
We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past, but we can achieve low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth. To exceed that, we must continue to nurture strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh titles to players."