In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection game Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to MTG’s president and chief executive officer Maria Redin, that deal is only the opening act in a much larger growth narrative. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company set a bold vision after the Plarium acquisition: to double its overall size once more. “We set out the vision last year that post‑acquisition of Plarium we want to double yet again in size,” she explained.
“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 she proposes is aggressive – roughly three to five years – but she points out that MTG has already proven its capacity to scale quickly. In 2021 the group announced a similar ambition and, as Redin notes, the company actually tripled its size during that period. The mobile gaming landscape has changed dramatically in recent years.
A few years ago, the sector was expanding at double‑digit rates; today growth has settled into the single‑digit range, reflecting a market that is maturing and becoming increasingly competitive. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users now resembles a crowded red sea, where gaining market share often means acquiring rivals or absorbing their user bases. Acquisitions are the easy part; integration is where many firms stumble. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of studios bought only to be shuttered after a botched merger.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap for integration. Before buying Plarium, the group already owned a portfolio of mobile studios, including InnoGames (Forge of Empires), Snowprint (Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6), and Futureplay (Merge Gardens). These studios were organized into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences. Following the Plarium deal, MTG rebranded these districts as Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp comprises the majority of MTG’s portfolio – games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases. The rebranding is more than cosmetic; Redin says the goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term “village” is deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community and belonging, essential for retaining talent after rapid expansion. Redin emphasizes that people are MTG’s greatest asset.
“Gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions,” she says. “We buy our companies, which also means that we want the founders and the teams to stay on board post‑acquisition, because that’s when the true exciting story should start and you continue to scale the businesses.” To keep those teams motivated, MTG is standardising technology and tools across the group, a project that gained momentum after Plarium’s arrival gave the company the scale needed to roll out a unified tech stack. Standardisation can be a double‑edged sword. Electronic Arts famously forced its studios to adopt the Frostbite engine, leading to friction and delays on titles like Mass Effect.
MTG is cautious, recognising that the tech requirements for Playsimple differ markedly from those of Playamp. Redin explains that the casual division will use a foundational tech stack tailored for ad‑driven games, while the midcore side will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s suite. “We’ve done a very thorough internal assessment on where it makes sense to collaborate and share technical tools, and where it doesn’t,” she notes.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin believes this shared infrastructure will boost productivity across studios: “We want to make sure that we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck… we are elevating everything that was already done.” Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s modernization agenda.
Generative AI is reshaping content creation throughout the mobile sector. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated assets for its game Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven production across its portfolio.
Redin observes that most industry peers are having similar conversations about embedding AI into their pipelines. She describes generative AI as “significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before,” and stresses the need to strike a balance between automation and human creativity.
The company is adding AI layers to existing workflows for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and analytics. Successful AI solutions developed in one studio are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, enabling rapid diffusion of best practices.
“We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as it fits into our overarching AI framework on the dos and don’ts,” Redin says. “When one company develops something really good, we make sure we can quickly roll that out on a broader scale.” When asked whether AI will eventually replace human designers, Redin is cautious. She believes creativity remains uniquely human for now, but warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind competitors.
“If we don’t embrace AI, we are going to be slower than what our competitors are,” she asserts. “AI can super‑charge everything we do, while we keep the creativity, innovation, and vision of our team.” Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s earnings come from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. “We bought Snowprint a couple of years back, and if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic,” she says, hinting at a strategy of replicating successful studio models.
Although Playsimple currently consists of a single studio, the group is considering adding a third “district” to its gaming village, potentially focused on leveraging existing marketing platforms or data capabilities. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains optimistic about growth.
The mobile top‑ten charts have shown remarkable stability, reinforcing MTG’s belief in evergreen intellectual property. While Raid: Shadow Legends is expected to generate revenue for many more years, the company also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline. Plarium is preparing to soft‑launch a new title early next year, and MTG continues to scout for innovative concepts.
Industry observers such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen have warned that Western mobile developers are “coasting,” citing the modest number of new billion‑dollar games emerging from the region. Yet Redin argues that abandoning new‑game development would erode the creative DNA of its studios.
“Investing in new games is essential to retain creativity, passion, and drive,” she says. In summary, MTG’s roadmap combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production to double its size within a few years. While the market may no longer deliver the hyper‑growth of earlier years, Redin believes that a blend of strong evergreen franchises and a steady flow of fresh titles will sustain the company’s expansion in a competitive, maturing mobile gaming ecosystem.