In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile‑gaming powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, while already a headline, appears to be only the opening move in a broader expansion plan, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set shortly after the Plarium acquisition, 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 pointed out that MTG has already proven it can meet bold targets. In 2021 the firm announced a similar growth goal and, as she recalled, “we think we tripled.” Those numbers reflect a market that, just a few years ago, was expanding at double‑digit rates before settling into single‑digit growth as the mobile sector matures.
What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded, competitive arena where expansion now often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Buying companies is the relatively easy part of the equation; integrating them into a cohesive whole is notoriously hard. The gaming industry is littered with stories of acquisitions that went sour, leading to studio closures and wasted talent. MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap for smooth integration.
Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a suite of mobile studios, including InnoGames (known for Forge of Empires), Snowprint (creator of Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6) and Futureplay (Merge Gardens). These studios were originally 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. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, focused on games that generate revenue through in‑app purchases.
Redin emphasized that the rebranding goes beyond a cosmetic change. She wants to build “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase she says is meant to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees.
Retaining talent and ensuring smooth cultural integration are top priorities, especially given the rapid pace of recent acquisitions. "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 where they can thrive," Redin explained. "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.
The only way you can make sure they stay is if you create an environment they enjoy." A key component of that environment is technology standardisation. Since Redin became CEO in 2020, she has pushed for a unified tech stack across MTG’s studios, but the scale required to roll it out fully only materialised after Plarium joined the group.
"Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company," she noted, adding that the standardisation effort is being applied selectively—different toolsets for Playsimple versus Playamp—to ensure each division gets the right support. For the Midcore (Playamp) side, MTG has adopted parts of Plarium’s technology suite, while the Casual (Playsimple) side will use a foundation built around the newly acquired India studio’s stack.
Redin said the company performed a thorough internal assessment to decide where sharing tools makes sense and where bespoke solutions are necessary. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑data platform are already being deployed across the group, with additional features being added to boost efficiency.
The goal, according to Redin, is to concentrate effort where it yields the greatest return. "We want to make sure that we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck," she said.
"We have some amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we want to super‑charge that with a tech suite they can leverage, elevating everything that was already done." Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s modernization strategy. Generative AI tools are already reshaping content creation at InnoGames, where the entire asset pipeline for the mobile title Sunrise Village has been AI‑generated for some time. The company is now looking to expand AI‑driven content creation across its other titles as well. Redin believes this mirrors a broader industry trend: AI is being woven into every stage of game development, from A/B testing and graphics generation to quality assurance.
"Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before," she said. "We’re all trying to find the right balance—where to change the workflow, where to keep it, and how to use AI to make our games more relevant to players while speeding up delivery." She stressed that AI is meant to augment, not replace, human creativity.
"Our talent has an amazing creativity that doesn’t sit yet within AI. If we don’t embrace AI, we’ll be slower than our competitors. AI can supercharge everything we do while we keep the creativity, innovation, and vision of our team." Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the casual side, which currently consists of a single studio—Playsimple.
Redin expressed a desire to broaden both sides: "We bought Snowprint a couple of years back, and if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we would like to add more scale." Looking ahead, Redin 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. The exact shape of that future district remains undecided, but the concept reflects MTG’s intention to keep its organisational structure flexible as the market evolves. When asked about the state of the mobile top‑ten charts, Redin observed that the list changes very little year over year, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs.
"Our thesis from day one has been that we believe in evergreen IPs," she said. "Raid has many more years ahead of it, but that doesn’t mean we stop investing in new games.
You need a pipeline of fresh titles to keep the ecosystem healthy." The challenge of launching successful new games is underscored by industry commentary from Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, who warned that Western mobile developers are “coasting” and that only two of the 22 mobile games surpassing $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have faced setbacks, such as the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin acknowledged the difficulty but insisted that new titles are essential to preserving studio DNA and creative drive.
"Plarium has a new title set to soft‑launch early next year," she noted. "If we don’t invest in new games, we lose a part of the studios’ DNA, which is how you retain creativity and passion." In the broader context of a maturing market, Redin remains optimistic about growth potential. With roughly three billion gamers worldwide, she believes the sector is still compelling, even as it competes for user attention with streaming services and social media. "We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past, but we can still achieve low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth.
To exceed that, we must continue to invest in strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh games to market," she concluded.