In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer 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 an aggressive expansion agenda. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s post‑Plarium vision is to double its overall size once again.
“We set out the vision last year that after acquiring Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she said. “We will continue to drive organic growth, but to do that we need to pursue additional acquisitions.” The target timeline is ambitious – she aims to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. MTG has precedent for rapid scaling: Redin noted that the firm set a similar goal in 2021 and ended up tripling its scale. The mobile gaming sector, once characterised by double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the market matures.
What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has become fiercely competitive, meaning that future growth will often require taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. While buying studios is relatively straightforward, integrating them successfully is notoriously difficult. The industry is littered with examples of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor integration. MTG believes it has a formula to avoid those pitfalls.
Before the Plarium deal, the group already owned a portfolio of mobile studios such as InnoGames (Forge of Empires), Snowprint (Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6) and Futureplay (Merge Gardens). These entities were split 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 respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, aggregates free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs). Redin says the rebranding is only the surface of a deeper cultural shift. The goal is to forge “one of the leading gaming villages,” a term she chose deliberately to convey a sense of community and belonging.
Retaining talent and ensuring smooth integration are top priorities for a company that has been on an acquisition spree. “Gaming is the best marriage of creativity and data‑driven decisions,” she explained. “People are one of our biggest assets, but we must create an environment where they can thrive.
We want founders and teams to stay after a purchase because that is when the real story begins and we can scale the business further.” A major component of the integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across the MTG ecosystem. Redin has pursued this goal since becoming CEO in 2020, but she believes Plarium’s size finally gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. She acknowledges the risks – citing Electronic Arts’ troubled push to force all studios onto the Frostbite engine – but stresses that the needs of Playsimple and Playamp differ considerably, so the two divisions receive separate tech stacks. “Playsimple’s tech foundation will be the basis for future casual acquisitions,” she said.
“For Midcore we have selected parts of Plarium’s suite to share group‑wide, but we are rolling it out selectively to ensure it benefits every studio.” Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance their usefulness. The intent is to maximise impact while minimising waste: “We want to put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” Redin noted.
“We have amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Artificial intelligence is another lever MTG is pulling. Generative AI has already reshaped content creation at InnoGames, where all assets for the mobile title Sunrise Village are produced with AI, and the studio plans to extend AI‑generated content further.
Redin observes that AI is being woven into production pipelines across the mobile sector. “Most of the industry is discussing how to adopt new technology in our workflow,” she said.
“Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before.” The company is focusing on layering AI onto existing processes such as A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance and analytics. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid dissemination of best practices.
When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin was cautious. “I don’t think AI can do everything you do,” she replied. “Our talent’s creativity is still essential and not yet replicable by AI. But if we ignore AI we will fall behind competitors.
AI should amplify, not replace, our designers, artists and engineers.” She added that AI can help address capacity shortfalls, offering assistance in coding, art production and complex logic. Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the casual side (Playsimple) contributing about 20 %. Redin is eager to broaden both sides: “We bought Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint would be fantastic.
On the casual side we would like to add more scale.” Currently Playsimple consists of a single studio, yet it already generates a fifth of the group’s revenue. Redin hinted at the possibility of a third “district” in the future, likely centred around the core capabilities of MTG’s marketing and data platforms. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes the top‑ten mobile games remain remarkably stable, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs. “Raid has many more years ahead of it,” she said, while also acknowledging the need for a fresh pipeline of titles.
The challenge of launching new hits is evident industry‑wide; Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that Western mobile developers are “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 admits that creating and scaling a new hit is difficult, but she stresses that a commitment to new development preserves the creative DNA of each studio. Plarium, for example, is preparing to soft‑launch a new title early next year.
“If we stop investing in new games we lose part of what makes our studios unique,” she said. Looking ahead, Redin sees a market still worth pursuing. With three billion gamers worldwide, the sector remains compelling, even if growth rates have slipped to low‑single‑digit or mid‑single‑digit levels.
“If you want to grow beyond that, you need to double‑down on strong evergreen IPs and also bring fresh games to market,” she concluded.