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 title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, however, is only the opening move in what MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion playbook. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium deal, is to double its overall size once again. “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 for that growth is bold: Redin aims to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. She noted that MTG has already proven its capacity for rapid scaling, recalling that the firm set a similar target in 2021 and, in her words, “tripled” its size in the intervening period. The mobile gaming market, once characterized by double‑digit growth, has now settled into a single‑digit expansion phase as the sector matures.
What was once a blue ocean of untapped opportunity has become a crowded, competitive arena where gaining market share often means either out‑competing rivals or absorbing them through acquisition. While buying studios can be straightforward, the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly—a process that has tripped up many companies, leading to studio closures and lost talent. MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers before adding Plarium to the mix, 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 studios were previously grouped into two “districts”: the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Under Redin’s rebranding effort, those districts have been renamed Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, will house free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp will focus on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now represent the bulk of MTG’s earnings. Beyond a cosmetic name change, Redin’s vision is to build “one of the leading gaming villages.” She explains that the term is deliberately inviting, meant to foster a sense of community that encourages staff to stay and thrive.
“People are one of our biggest assets,” she said, “but you also need to create an environment where they can flourish. We buy companies because we want the founders and their teams to remain after the deal, because that’s when the real story begins and the business can scale further. The only way to keep them is to make sure they enjoy the environment.” A key part of the integration strategy has been the standardisation of technology and tools across MTG’s growing ecosystem. Redin notes that this push began when she took the helm in 2020, but it was the scale brought by Plarium that finally allowed the company to roll out a unified tech stack.
She is careful, however, to point out that the needs of the Playsimple and Playamp divisions differ dramatically, so the standardisation effort has been tailored accordingly. “For Playsimple, the tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual‑district acquisitions,” Redin explained. “For Midcore, we have selected parts of Plarium’s technology suite to use group‑wide, but we are deploying it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio.” She added that an internal assessment identified precisely where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it does not, preventing unnecessary homogenisation that could stifle creativity.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being leveraged across the MTG portfolio, with additional features and functionality being added to suit the broader group. Redin believes this will boost studio productivity: “We want to put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck. We have some amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to supercharge them with a tech suite they can leverage, elevating everything that’s already being done.” Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is also reshaping MTG’s development pipelines. InnoGames, for example, 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 says this mirrors a wider industry trend where AI is woven into production workflows. “Most of the people I talk to in the industry are having similar discussions about how we embrace new technology,” she noted.
“Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before. The challenge is finding the right balance—where do we change the workflow, where do we keep it, and how do we use AI to make our games more relevant to players while also speeding up delivery and improving quality?” MTG’s approach is to layer AI onto 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, allowing rapid cross‑studio rollout of proven innovations.
Redin stresses the importance of flexibility: “We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as they fit within our overarching AI framework. When one company develops something really good, we make sure we can quickly share it across the group.” When asked whether AI has become a prerequisite for competing in the fast‑moving mobile market, Redin cautioned against fatalism. “I often get the question, ‘Is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do?’ I don’t think so. Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate,” she said.
“But if we don’t embrace AI, we will fall behind competitors. AI can super‑charge everything we do, allowing us to keep our creative vision while leveraging new levels of technology.” She highlighted AI’s role in addressing capacity shortfalls, citing examples such as coding assistance, art generation, and advanced logic handling. “AI is supercharging, and it’s important to embrace it to ensure we continue to make amazing games at the core.” Revenue‑wise, about 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 enthusiasm for expanding 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.” She also hinted at the possibility of a third district, which would likely centre on the core capabilities the group already possesses, such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes the top‑ten mobile games list remains relatively stable year after year, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual properties.
While the company continues to invest in proven titles like Raid, it also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline. “We have a new Plarium title slated for soft launch early next year,” she said, noting that neglecting new games would erode the creative DNA of its studios.
The broader industry context is sobering: Western mobile publishers have struggled to produce new billion‑dollar hits, with only two out of 22 titles surpassing that threshold since 2020. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have seen mixed results, as illustrated by the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin acknowledges these challenges but remains optimistic about growth potential. “We have three billion gamers worldwide.
It’s a compelling market, even though we compete for attention with streaming services and social media. We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past, but low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth is still possible if we keep investing in strong evergreen IPs and bring new games to market.” In summary, MTG under Maria Redin is pursuing a multi‑pronged strategy: aggressive acquisition, thoughtful rebranding into Playsimple and Playamp, selective technology standardisation, and a measured embrace of generative AI—all aimed at building a cohesive “gaming village” that can sustain both legacy hits and fresh titles in an increasingly competitive mobile landscape.