In February of the previous year, the Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, however, is only the opening move in what the company’s chief executive, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion agenda. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the vision set out after the Plarium deal was to "double the company’s size again" and that achieving this ambition would require a continued focus on organic growth complemented by further acquisitions. She estimates that the doubling could be realised within a three‑to‑five‑year horizon.
The target is not speculative; MTG already hit a similar milestone in 2021, when the group tripled its scale in just a few years. The mobile gaming sector, once characterized by double‑digit growth, has now settled into a single‑digit expansion rate as the market matures. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded red ocean where gaining market share often means either out‑competing rivals or absorbing them. Acquisitions are the easier part of that equation—integrating new studios into an existing corporate structure is where many companies stumble, sometimes leading to studio closures.
MTG believes it has a clear plan to avoid those pitfalls. Before the Plarium deal, 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”: the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, now 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 emphasizes that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; the goal is to build "one of the leading gaming villages." The term "village" is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community and belonging, which she says is crucial for retaining talent after rapid expansion.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explains. "People are our greatest asset, but we must also 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 and the business can scale. The only way to keep them is to make sure they enjoy the environment we create." A key component of the integration strategy is the standardisation of technology and tools across MTG’s studios.
Redin notes that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a common foundation can accelerate development and reduce duplication of effort. The push for standardisation began when she became CEO in 2020, but the Plarium acquisition gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. She is careful, however, to differentiate the needs of Playsimple and Playamp.
"Playsimple’s tech stack will become the baseline for future casual studios, while for Midcore we have selected parts of Plarium’s suite to deploy group‑wide, but only where it makes sense," she says. This selective rollout follows an internal assessment that identified where shared tools would add value and where they would hinder progress.
Two of Plarium’s platforms—the GoGame marketing engine and the PDP data platform—are already being used across the MTG ecosystem, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin believes that concentrating effort where it yields the greatest return will "super‑charge" the Midcore studios, elevating the quality and efficiency of their output. Generative AI is another technology that is reshaping MTG’s development pipeline.
InnoGames, for instance, has been generating all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village using AI for some time, and the company plans to broaden AI‑driven content creation across its portfolio. Redin sees this as part of a broader industry trend where AI is embedded into production workflows. She describes AI as "significantly more powerful than any tool we have had before" and stresses the need to strike a balance: "We must decide where to change workflows and where to keep them intact, always with the aim of making our games more relevant to players and accelerating time‑to‑market." The AI strategy at MTG focuses on layering intelligent capabilities onto existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and analytics.
Successful AI solutions developed in individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite for company‑wide use. Redin stresses the importance of allowing each studio the freedom to experiment within a shared AI framework, then disseminating successful innovations quickly across the group. When asked whether AI has become a prerequisite for competing in the mobile market, Redin cautions against overstating its role.
"Creativity and human talent remain irreplaceable," she says. "If we ignore AI, we risk falling behind competitors, but AI should augment—not replace—our creative teams. It can help fill capacity gaps in coding, art, and logic, allowing us to maintain a high output of quality games." Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single studio currently operating under the Playsimple banner. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business.
She cites Snowprint as a model: "If we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic." She also hints at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, one that would leverage the group’s core capabilities in marketing platforms and data analytics. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes the top‑ten mobile games list changes little each year, underscoring the importance of evergreen IPs.
"Our thesis from day one has been to invest in titles that have lasting appeal," she says. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of revenue potential, MTG continues to develop new games to keep the pipeline fresh. Plarium, for example, has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year. The broader industry context is challenging.
Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen warned that the Western mobile market is "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 launching and scaling new games but argues that a steady flow of fresh titles is essential to preserve studio DNA, creativity, and passion. Looking ahead, Redin sees a market that remains compelling despite slower growth rates.
With three billion gamers worldwide, competition for attention is fierce—streaming services, social media, and other forms of entertainment vie for the same user time. Nevertheless, she believes there is still room for growth, albeit not at the hyper‑growth rates of the past.
"If you want to exceed low‑single‑digit or mid‑single‑digit growth, you must double‑down on strong evergreen IPs while also bringing new games to market," she concludes. In summary, MTG’s strategy under Maria Redin’s leadership combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI augmentation, and a balanced portfolio of evergreen and new titles. The company aims to double its size within five years, create a cohesive "gaming village" that retains talent, and continue delivering compelling mobile experiences in an increasingly crowded marketplace.