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 blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, while already massive, is only the opening move in a broader expansion plan, according to MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the vision set out after the Plarium acquisition is to double the group’s size once more. “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 she proposes is aggressive: the goal is to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years.
Redin noted that MTG has already proven its capacity to scale quickly, pointing to the 2021 ambition that saw the company’s revenues triple in a short span. The mobile gaming market, once characterized by double‑digit growth, has now settled into single‑digit expansion as the sector matures. What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has turned increasingly competitive, forcing firms to either capture market share from rivals or absorb them outright. Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating those studios without disrupting their creative engines.
The industry is littered with cautionary tales of poorly managed mergers that resulted in studio closures. MTG entered the acquisition phase with a solid foundation of internal studios, 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 entities were originally grouped into two “districts”: the Casual District and the Midcore District, the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the Plarium deal, these districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, now houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which constitute the bulk of MTG’s portfolio. Redin emphasized that the restructuring goes beyond a cosmetic name change.
She envisions building “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase deliberately chosen to evoke a sense of community and belonging. The aim is to retain talent and foster smooth integration, a critical concern given the rapid pace of recent acquisitions. “I always say gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions,” Redin explained. “People are one of our biggest assets, but we also need to create an environment where they can thrive.
We buy companies because we want the founders and teams to stay on board after the deal, because that’s when the real story begins and we can scale the businesses. The only way to make sure they stay is to build a workplace they enjoy.” A parallel effort underway since Redin took the helm in 2020 is the standardisation of technology and tools across MTG’s studios. She noted that the Plarium acquisition gave the group sufficient scale to roll out this vision fully.
While tech unification can be risky—EA’s attempt to force all its studios onto the Frostbite engine famously caused friction—MTG is taking a nuanced approach. The tech stack required for Playsimple’s casual games differs dramatically from the needs of Playamp’s midcore titles, so each division is being equipped with separate, specialised toolsets.
“For Playsimple, the tech stack will become the foundation for future companies we bring into the Casual District,” Redin said. “For Midcore, we have selected parts of Plarium’s suite to use group‑wide, but we are rolling it out selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio.
We performed a thorough internal assessment to decide where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it does not.” Key components of Plarium’s infrastructure, such as the GoGame marketing platform and the PDP data platform, are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added. The goal is to maximise impact with the least waste: “We want to put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” Redin asserted. “We have amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite they can leverage, elevating everything that’s already been done.” Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s modernization strategy.
InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI‑driven content creation. Redin sees this as part of a wider industry trend: “Most of the parties I speak to are having similar discussions about embracing new technology in our production chain. Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before.” She described the company’s approach as layering AI onto existing workflows—enhancing A/B testing, graphics production, quality assurance, and more—while allowing individual studios the freedom to experiment within an overarching AI framework. Successful AI solutions from one studio are then rolled out across the group, accelerating innovation.
When asked whether AI has become indispensable in mobile game development, Redin cautioned against hyperbole. “I often get the question, ‘Is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do?’ I don’t think so. The creativity of our talent is still something AI can’t replicate.
But if we ignore AI, we will fall behind competitors. AI can help us fill capacity gaps, speed up analysis, generate art, and handle complex logic, allowing us to maintain our creative edge while moving faster.” Revenue-wise, about 80 % now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single studio in Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the portfolio.
“We bought Snowprint a few years ago; if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we’d like more scale as well.” She hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, likely built around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the market’s maturation, Redin believes evergreen IPs will continue to dominate the top‑ten mobile charts, a reality she says MTG has always anticipated.
Nevertheless, she stresses the importance of a fresh pipeline: “Raid has many years ahead of it, but we also need new games. Otherwise we lose the DNA of our studios—creativity, passion, drive.” The broader industry context is sobering: western mobile developers have produced only two of the 22 billion‑dollar titles since 2020, and even Supercell’s recent incubator projects have struggled. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of launching and scaling new titles, yet she remains optimistic.
“We have three billion gamers worldwide; it’s a compelling market. Growth will be modest—low to mid single‑digit—but if we continue to invest in strong evergreen IPs and bring fresh games to market, we can still expand.” In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI augmentation, and a balanced mix of proven and new IPs—all aimed at doubling the company’s size within the next few years while preserving the creative spirit that fuels its studios.