In February of last year, Sweden’s 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 deal, however, appears only to be the first step in a much larger expansion plan.
“Last year we set a vision that, after bringing Plarium into the fold, we want to double our scale again,” MTG’s president and chief executive officer Maria Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. “Organic growth will continue to be a priority, but to achieve the next leap we’ll need to pursue additional acquisitions.” Redin’s timetable for the doubling is aggressive: she aims to hit the target within three to five years. The ambition is not new – MTG declared a similar goal in 2021 and, according to Redin, the company actually tripled its size in the ensuing period. A few years ago the mobile sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, but growth has since slowed to single digits, signalling a mature market.
What once resembled a blue ocean has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will largely involve capturing rivals’ market share or absorbing them outright. Acquiring companies is the easy half of the equation; integrating them successfully is where many firms stumble. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor integration.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before the Plarium deal, MTG 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 grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences.
The districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp comprises the bulk of MTG’s portfolio, featuring games that rely on 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 intentional, meant to evoke a community that people want to belong to.
Retaining talent and fostering a cohesive culture are top priorities for a company that has been rapidly adding studios. “I always say gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” Redin explained. “Our people are our greatest asset, but we must also build an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a studio we intend for the founders and their teams to stay on board, because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business.
The only way to ensure they stay is to create a workplace they enjoy.” Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio. Redin notes that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a common foundation can drive efficiencies. This standardisation effort began when she became CEO in 2020, but the scale required to roll it out fully only arrived with the Plarium acquisition.
The company is careful to avoid the pitfalls seen elsewhere. EA’s push to force all its studios onto the Frostbite engine caused considerable friction on projects such as Mass Effect. Redin acknowledges that the tech needs of Playsimple differ dramatically from those of Playamp, so the two divisions are being treated separately.
“For Playsimple, the tech stack will become the template for any future casual studio we bring in,” she said. “For Midcore, we’ve selected parts of Plarium’s suite to roll out group‑wide, but we’re doing it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio.
We performed a thorough internal assessment to decide where collaboration makes sense and where it does not.” Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being used across MTG, and the company is adding new features to enhance them. Redin believes these upgrades will raise the overall output of all studios. “We want to focus our resources where we get the biggest bang for the buck,” she said.
“We have fantastic game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a robust tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Generative AI is another area where MTG is investing heavily. InnoGames, for example, has been generating all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village with AI for some time and is looking to broaden AI‑driven content creation across the studio. Redin says this mirrors a broader industry trend: AI tools are being woven into the production pipeline to accelerate development and improve quality. “We’re all having similar conversations about how to adopt new technology,” she noted.
“Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before. The challenge is finding the right balance – where do we change the workflow, where do we keep it, and where can AI add the most value?” MTG’s approach is to layer AI on top of existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite for company‑wide use. “We allow studios to experiment as long as they stay within our overarching AI framework,” Redin explained.
“When one team creates something great, we can quickly propagate that capability across the group.” When asked whether AI has become indispensable in today’s cut‑throat mobile market, Redin cautioned against hyperbole. “I don’t think AI will replace human creativity,” she said. “Our talent’s imagination is still the core driver.
But if we ignore AI we’ll fall behind competitors. AI can supercharge our work, fill capacity gaps, and help us deliver games faster and better.” Currently about 80 % of MTG’s revenue comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides.
“We bought Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint would be fantastic,” she said. “On the casual side we’d like to add more scale.” While the two districts are the focus now, Redin hinted at the possibility of a third “district” in the future, built around the core capabilities the group already possesses – likely leveraging the marketing and data platforms already in place.
Regarding the games themselves, Redin observes that the top‑ten mobile titles change very little year over year. “Our thesis from day one has been to back evergreen IPs,” she said. “Raid has many years left, but we also need a pipeline of new games to keep the portfolio fresh.” The challenge of launching new hits is evident across the industry. Supercell’s 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; the Squad Busters project was shut down after its 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges the difficulty: “It’s hard to create a successful game and then scale it,” she said, noting that Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year. “If we stopped investing in new games we’d lose part of our DNA – the creativity and passion that drive us.” Looking ahead, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s long‑term potential.
“There are three billion gamers worldwide, so the market is still compelling,” she said. “Growth will be modest – low to mid single‑digit – but to exceed that we must continue to nurture evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh experiences to players.”