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. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer, that deal was only the opening move in a much larger plan. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a vision last year to double its scale again after the Plarium purchase, and that achieving this will require a mix of organic expansion and further acquisitions.
She estimates the target of a two‑fold increase could be reached within a three‑to‑five‑year window. The ambition is not unprecedented for MTG; the firm previously set a similar goal in 2021 and, as Redin noted, succeeded in tripling its size. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years.
What was once a sector exploding with double‑digit growth has slowed to single‑digit increments as the market matures. The “blue ocean” of easy expansion has turned into a crowded, competitive arena where growth now often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them entirely.
Acquiring studios is the simpler part of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating those businesses without disrupting their creative output. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor integration. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (known for 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 now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, focusing on games that generate revenue through in‑app purchases. Redin says the rebranding is more than cosmetic; it reflects a broader ambition to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term is meant to evoke a sense of community that encourages staff to stay and thrive—a critical factor for a company that has been rapidly adding new studios.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," she explained. "Our people are our greatest asset, but they need an environment where they can flourish. When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to remain on board because that’s when the real story begins.
The only way to keep them is to build a workplace they enjoy." A key component of the integration strategy has been the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has pursued this goal since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the scale required to roll it out fully only arrived with the Plarium deal. The plan is not to force a one‑size‑fits‑all solution; instead, MTG tailors tech stacks to the needs of each district. Playsimple’s infrastructure will serve as the baseline for future casual acquisitions, while Playamp will adopt selected elements of Plarium’s tech suite in a measured, selective rollout.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data system have already been deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance their utility. Redin emphasises that the goal is to invest resources where they deliver the greatest return, leveraging the strong development talent already present in the group and supercharging it with a unified, high‑performance tech suite. Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is also reshaping MTG’s production pipelines.
InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI adoption across its catalogue. Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in many stages of game creation—from A/B testing and graphic generation to quality assurance and analytics. Successful AI tools from individual studios are being incorporated into the shared Plarium tech platform, allowing rapid diffusion of innovations throughout the organisation. When asked whether AI could eventually replace human creators, Redin cautioned against such a simplistic view.
She believes creativity remains a uniquely human trait that AI cannot replicate, yet she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors. "AI can super‑charge our work, filling capacity gaps in coding, art and logic, but the core of great games still comes from talented people." Financially, roughly 80 % of MTG’s revenue now stems from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She cites Snowprint as an example of a studio she would like to replicate globally, and she hints at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village—one that would likely centre around the company’s marketing and data capabilities. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains confident in its long‑term prospects.
The top‑ten mobile games list changes little from year to year, reinforcing her belief in evergreen IPs. While MTG continues to invest in proven titles like Raid, it also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline.
Plarium is preparing to soft‑launch a new game early next year, and MTG is watching the broader industry, where western studios have struggled to break the $1 billion barrier with new releases. Redin acknowledges that creating hit games is difficult, but she argues that a steady flow of new titles is essential to preserve the creative DNA of each studio. In a market of three billion gamers, there is still ample room for growth, even if the hyper‑growth phase of the past is unlikely to return.
Sustainable expansion, she concludes, will come from a balanced mix of strengthening evergreen franchises and nurturing innovative new experiences.