In February of last year, the 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. That deal, however, is only the opening act in what MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion agenda. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the vision set in motion after the Plarium acquisition is to double the size of MTG once again, and that this ambition will be pursued through a combination of organic growth and further strategic purchases. She estimates the target will be reached within a three‑to‑five‑year horizon.
The company has already demonstrated the capacity to scale quickly – in 2021 MTG set a similar goal and ultimately tripled its size. The mobile gaming sector, once characterized by double‑digit growth rates, has now settled into a mature, single‑digit expansion environment.
What used to be a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned into a crowded, competitive arena where gaining market share often means acquiring rivals or integrating them into a larger portfolio. While buying companies can be straightforward, the real challenge lies in merging cultures, technology stacks, and processes without triggering the studio closures that have plagued many failed integrations in the industry. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a collection of notable mobile studios: 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” – the Casual District and the Midcore District – the latter referring to games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, MTG rebranded these districts as Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now make up the bulk of MTG’s earnings. Redin emphasizes that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it is part of a broader effort to create a “gaming village” where talent feels a sense of belonging.
Retaining founders and development teams after an acquisition is a core priority because the real value emerges when those teams continue to scale their products under the MTG umbrella. To foster this environment, MTG is standardising technology and tools across its portfolio, a process that began under Redin’s leadership in 2020 but only gained sufficient scale after Plarium joined the group. Standardisation, however, is being approached with nuance.
The tech requirements for Playsimple’s ad‑driven games differ markedly from those of Playamp’s IAP‑centric titles. Consequently, MTG is rolling out distinct toolkits for each district.
Playsimple’s stack will serve as the baseline for future casual acquisitions, while Playamp will adopt selected components of Plarium’s technology suite, deployed selectively after a thorough internal assessment of where shared tools add value and where they do not. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being leveraged across the MTG ecosystem, with additional features and functionality being added to enhance studio productivity. Redin explains that the aim is to allocate resources where they deliver the greatest return, supercharging the group’s strongest developers with a unified tech suite that elevates existing capabilities. Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s growth playbook.
Generative AI is already reshaping content creation at InnoGames, where AI‑generated assets have been used extensively for the mobile title Sunrise Village, and the studio plans to broaden AI‑driven production across its portfolio. Redin notes that AI is being woven into various pipelines – from A/B testing and graphic generation to quality assurance – and successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium‑derived tech stack. When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin is cautious.
She believes that while AI can accelerate development and fill capacity gaps, the spark of imagination that drives truly compelling games remains a uniquely human trait. Embracing AI, she argues, is essential to stay competitive, but it must complement—not supplant—the creative talent that defines MTG’s brands. Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s earnings now stem from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single studio currently operating under Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business.
She cites Snowprint as an example of a studio they would love to replicate globally, and she 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 market’s maturation, Redin sees continuity in the top‑ten mobile games list, which rarely changes dramatically year over year. This stability reinforces MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual property. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of revenue potential, the company also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline.
Plarium, for instance, is preparing to soft‑launch a new title early next year, underscoring the group’s commitment to nurturing new IP alongside its established hits. Industry observers, such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, warn that the western mobile market is “coasting,” with only a handful of new billion‑dollar titles emerging from the region since 2020. Nonetheless, Redin acknowledges the difficulty of launching successful new games but argues that without continual investment in fresh concepts, studios risk losing the creative DNA that fuels innovation. In summary, Redin paints a picture of a maturing yet still compelling market of three billion gamers worldwide.
While hyper‑growth may be a thing of the past, MTG aims to achieve low‑ to mid‑single‑digit growth by doubling down on its evergreen franchises, expanding its studio roster, and leveraging AI and standardised technology to bring new games to market faster and more efficiently. The ultimate goal is to build a cohesive, talent‑centric gaming village that can thrive in an increasingly competitive mobile landscape.