In February of last year, the Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the wildly popular hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, while already sizable, appears only to be the opening move in a broader expansion agenda. "Last year we set a clear vision: after bringing Plarium into the fold we aim to double our scale once more," MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin, told GamesIndustry.biz. "Organic growth will continue to be a priority, but achieving that level of expansion will require additional acquisitions." Redin’s timeline is bold – she targets a three‑to‑five‑year horizon for the doubling.
The Swedish group has a track record of ambitious targets: in 2021 the company announced a similar goal and, according to Redin, ultimately tripled its size. The mobile gaming landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. A few years ago the sector was enjoying double‑digit growth rates; today that momentum has slowed to single‑digit gains, reflecting a market that is maturing rapidly. What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped opportunity has turned a deep red, meaning that future growth will largely depend on capturing market share from rivals or, more often, absorbing them outright.
Acquiring studios is the easy part; integrating them is where many companies stumble. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in cultural clashes, duplicated effort, and ultimately studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap to avoid those pitfalls. Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (the studio behind 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 pure casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs). The rebranding is more than cosmetic. Redin says the ambition is to create “one of the leading gaming villages.” The deliberately community‑oriented name is meant to foster a sense of belonging among employees, a critical factor when a company is rapidly adding new studios.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," she explained. "Our people are our greatest asset, but we must also build an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business together.
The only way to keep them is to make that environment enjoyable." A key pillar of the integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across the MTG ecosystem. Redin notes that this effort began when she took the helm in 2020, but the scale required to roll it out fully only materialised after Plarium joined.
"Not every solution needs to be built from scratch for each studio," she said. "We are creating shared tech stacks where it makes sense, while respecting the distinct needs of our casual and midcore divisions." The approach is deliberately selective. For Playsimple, the company will use a foundational tech stack that will serve future casual acquisitions. For Playamp, MTG has chosen components of Plarium’s technology suite to distribute group‑wide, but only after a rigorous internal assessment determines where collaboration will add value.
This mirrors past industry attempts that have faltered – for example, Electronic Arts’ push to force all studios onto the Frostbite engine caused significant friction and delays on projects like Mass Effect. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data infrastructure are already being leveraged across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to enhance performance. Redin emphasizes that the goal is to allocate resources where they generate the highest return: "We have fantastic game makers throughout the group.
With Playamp we want to supercharge their output using a robust tech suite that elevates what they already do." Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is another transformative force within MTG. InnoGames, for instance, has been using AI‑generated assets for its mobile title Sunrise Village for some time and is now exploring broader AI‑driven content creation.
Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in many production pipelines across the mobile sector. "We’re all having similar conversations about how to adopt new technology," she said, adding that generative AI is "significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before." The company’s AI strategy focuses on augmenting existing workflows rather than replacing them.
AI layers are being added to support A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and other routine tasks. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the Plarium tech suite and rolled out company‑wide. Redin stresses the importance of flexibility: "Studios can experiment within our overarching AI framework, and when one team discovers a breakthrough, we can quickly propagate that knowledge across the group." When asked whether AI will eventually make traditional game development obsolete, Redin cautioned against such deterministic thinking.
"Creativity is still a uniquely human trait and it remains at the core of great games," she said. "If we ignore AI, we risk falling behind competitors who are leveraging it to accelerate development and improve quality. AI should be seen as a catalyst that amplifies our talent, not a substitute for it." Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the casual Playsimple studio.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She cites 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." While Playsimple currently consists of a single studio, the company is actively scouting additional casual developers to increase scale. Looking ahead, Redin hints at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, though the exact focus is still undefined. "Any new district would build on our core capabilities – either leveraging our marketing platforms or our data assets," she explained.
From a product perspective, the mobile top‑ten list has become remarkably stable. "Every year we run the same analysis and see that the top games remain consistent," Redin noted. This stability underpins MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs – games that generate revenue for many years. While Raid: Shadow Legends is expected to have a long runway, Redin also stresses the necessity of a fresh pipeline: "You need a continuous flow of new titles to keep the ecosystem healthy." The broader industry context is sobering.
Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen recently warned that the western mobile market is "coasting," with only two of the 22 mobile games that have surpassed $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originating from the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled; its Squad Busters project was shut down after a brief launch in 2024.
Redin acknowledges these challenges but remains optimistic: "Creating a hit game and scaling it is hard, but abandoning new‑game investment would erode the creative DNA of our studios. New titles keep the passion alive." In the macro view, despite the market’s maturation, Redin believes growth is still achievable. "We have three billion gamers worldwide, so the market remains compelling," she said. "Growth rates may have settled into low‑ to mid‑single‑digit territory, but by nurturing evergreen franchises and continuously introducing fresh experiences, we can exceed that baseline." In summary, MTG’s strategy under Maria Redin blends aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production, all aimed at doubling the company’s size within the next few years while preserving the creative spirit that fuels its games.
The plan is ambitious, but with a clear focus on people, platforms, and pipelines, MTG hopes to remain a dominant force in an increasingly competitive mobile gaming arena.