In February of the previous year, Sweden's mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million acquisition of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in what MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin, describes as a far‑reaching growth agenda.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a clear vision after the Plarium purchase: "We want to double the size of the group again after bringing Plarium into the fold, and to do that we will need to pursue additional acquisitions while also driving organic growth." The target timeframe is aggressive – she aims to achieve the doubling within three to five years. Redin noted that MTG had already pursued a similar ambition in 2021 and, in her words, "tripled" the business during that period, giving her confidence that the next leap is realistic. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years.
What was once a rapidly expanding, double‑digit growth market has settled into single‑digit growth as the sector matures. The blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded red sea, meaning that future expansion will increasingly depend on capturing market share from rivals or absorbing them outright.
Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; integrating them successfully is where many companies stumble. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in culture clashes, duplicated tech 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 (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 – the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the Plarium deal, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp concentrates on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now make up the bulk of MTG’s earnings. Redin emphasized that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change. She envisions building "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase she says is deliberately warm and inclusive.
The goal is to create an environment where employees feel a strong sense of belonging, which is essential when a company is rapidly adding new studios and talent. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," she explained. "People are our greatest asset, but we must also give them a workplace where they can thrive.
When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to stay on board, because that is when the real story begins and the business can scale further. The only way to keep them is to build a culture they enjoy." A key part of the integration strategy has been the standardisation of technology and tools across the MTG ecosystem. Redin has pursued this goal since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the scale provided by the Plarium acquisition finally allowed the vision to be fully realised. Rather than forcing every studio to adopt a unique, bespoke stack, MTG is rolling out shared platforms where it makes sense, while preserving flexibility where needed.
She cautioned against the pitfalls of overly aggressive standardisation, citing Electronic Arts' troubled push to mandate the Frostbite engine across all its studios as an example of how a one‑size‑fits‑all approach can backfire. In MTG’s case, the needs of the Playsimple (casual) division differ markedly from those of Playamp (midcore), so the two groups have been treated separately. "Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual acquisitions," Redin said. "For the midcore side, we have selected elements of Plarium’s technology to roll out group‑wide, but we are doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio." Across the whole group, Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail-page data suite are being deployed, with MTG adding new features and functionality to enhance them.
The aim is to maximise the return on investment by giving studios a robust, shared infrastructure that can accelerate development and improve performance. Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s future strategy. Generative AI tools are already reshaping content creation at InnoGames, where the entire asset pipeline for the mobile title Sunrise Village is now AI‑driven, and the company plans to broaden AI‑generated content across its portfolio. Redin noted that AI is becoming embedded in many aspects of mobile game production, from A/B testing and graphics generation to quality assurance and analytics.
"Most of the industry is having the same conversations about how to adopt new technology," she said. "Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before, and we’re working 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 making our games more relevant to players and getting new titles to market faster and better." MTG’s approach is to let individual studios experiment within an overarching AI framework that defines best practices and boundaries. Successful AI solutions are then shared across the group, allowing rapid diffusion of innovation.
When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin was cautious. "I don’t think AI can do everything a human creator can," she replied. "Our talent’s imagination is still the core driver of great games.
However, if we ignore AI, we risk falling behind competitors who are leveraging it to speed up production and enhance quality. AI should be seen as a super‑charger that amplifies our existing creativity, not a replacement for it." Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin expressed a desire to grow both sides of the business.
She mentioned the recent acquisition of Snowprint and said that finding additional studios with a similar profile would be "fantastic." While Playsimple currently consists of a single studio, Redin hinted at the possibility of adding a third "district" to the gaming village in the future, one that would likely centre around the group’s core marketing and data capabilities. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains confident about growth prospects. She noted that the top‑ten mobile games list changes very little year over year, reinforcing MTG’s belief in evergreen IPs.
Nonetheless, she stressed the importance of a continuous pipeline of new titles. "Raid Shadow Legends still has many years ahead, but we also need fresh games to keep the creative DNA of our studios alive," she said. Plarium, for instance, is preparing to soft‑launch a new title early next year.
The broader industry context is challenging. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen has warned that Western mobile developers are "coasting," with only two of the 22 titles that have generated over $1 billion 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 these difficulties but argues that investing in new games is essential for retaining creative passion and ensuring long‑term relevance. She sees a market of three billion gamers as still compelling, even if growth rates have settled into low‑single‑digit or mid‑single‑digit territory. To exceed that baseline, MTG must continue to nurture its evergreen franchises while also bringing fresh experiences to players. In summary, Maria Redin’s roadmap for MTG combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI‑enhanced production, and a balanced portfolio of proven evergreen titles and new IPs.
By fostering a collaborative "gaming village" culture and leveraging shared tools, MTG aims to double its size within the next few years and remain a dominant force in the increasingly competitive mobile gaming arena.