In February of last year, Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million acquisition of Plarium, the developer behind the wildly popular hero‑collection game Raid: Shadow Legends. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer, that deal is only the opening move in a much larger growth play. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium purchase, is to double its overall size again within the next three to five years.
"We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size," she said. "And yes, we want to fuel and continue to drive organic growth, but in order to do that, we will need to do more acquisitions." The timeline is aggressive, but Redin points out that MTG has already proven it can scale quickly. The firm pursued a similar target in 2021 and, according to Redin, tripled its size in the years that followed.
The mobile gaming market, once a blue‑ocean of double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the sector matures. Competition is therefore shifting from hunting fresh users to taking market share from rivals—or, more directly, acquiring those rivals outright.
Acquisitions are relatively straightforward; the real challenge lies in integration. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of studios that were bought only to be shuttered later because the parent company failed to meld cultures, technology stacks, and processes. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap.
Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios, 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 pure casual and hardcore experiences.
Following the acquisition, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the bulk of MTG’s portfolio—games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases. Redin says the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it reflects a broader vision of creating "one of the leading gaming villages." The term is meant to evoke a sense of community that encourages talent to stay and thrive. "I always say gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions.
People are definitely one of our biggest assets, but you also need to create an environment for them to flourish," Redin explained. She emphasized that when MTG acquires a studio, it aims to keep the founders and their teams on board because that is when the real growth story begins.
A key element of the integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin notes that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a common platform can accelerate development and reduce overhead. This standardisation effort began when she took the helm in 2020, but the scale provided by the Plarium acquisition finally allowed MTG to roll it out fully.
She cautioned that a one‑size‑fits‑all approach can backfire, citing Electronic Arts’ problematic push to force all its studios onto the proprietary Frostbite engine. Instead, MTG tailors its tech strategy to each district. "Playsimple and its tech stack will be the foundation for future companies we onboard in the Casual District. For Midcore, we have selected parts of the Plarium tech suite to use group‑wide, but we are rolling it out selectively to ensure the end game is better for all companies," Redin said.
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 functionality. The goal is to concentrate resources where they deliver the greatest return, leveraging the strong creative talent across the group while providing a robust technical backbone. Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s future.
InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in many stages of game production, from A/B testing and graphics creation to quality assurance.
She believes generative AI is "significantly more powerful than any other tool we have had before," but stresses that it should augment—not replace—human creativity. "We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as they fit into our overarching AI framework on the dos and don’ts," she said.
Successful AI solutions from one studio are then shared across the Plarium tech suite, enabling rapid diffusion of best practices. When asked whether AI will eventually make human designers obsolete, Redin was cautious. "I often get the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do?
And I actually don't think so. What is important is that our talent has amazing creativity, and that doesn't sit yet within AI," she replied. Nevertheless, she warned that companies that ignore AI risk falling behind competitors who are already leveraging it to speed up development and improve game quality. Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s earnings now come from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She cited Snowprint as an example of a studio she would love to replicate globally: "If we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic." She also hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, one that would centre on core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics.
Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes the top‑ten mobile games remain remarkably stable year after year, underscoring the value of evergreen IPs. MTG’s strategy, therefore, balances investment in proven titles like Raid with a pipeline of new games. Plarium, for instance, is preparing to soft‑launch a fresh title early next year. Industry observers, such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, have warned that the western mobile market is "coasting," noting that only two of the 22 games that have generated over $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, with the recent shutdown of Squad Busters after a brief 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges these challenges but argues that abandoning new‑game development would erode the creative DNA of MTG’s studios.
"To not invest in new games would take away a little bit of the DNA of the different studios. That is how you retain creativity, passion, and drive," she said. Looking ahead, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s long‑term prospects. With roughly three billion gamers worldwide, she sees ample opportunity, even if growth rates have settled into low‑single‑digit or mid‑single‑digit figures.
"If you want to grow above and beyond that, you need to continue to invest in your strong evergreen IPs, but you also need to be able to bring new games to the market," she concluded. In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin’s leadership combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, district‑based branding, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production.
By nurturing both established franchises and fresh titles, the company aims to double its size within the next few years while maintaining a vibrant, collaborative culture that keeps talent engaged and innovative.