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 deal, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion playbook, according to MTG’s president and chief executive officer, Maria Redin. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the acquisition of Plarium was a stepping stone toward a much larger ambition: to double the size of the MTG group 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 points out that the company has already proved capable of rapid scaling.
In 2021 MTG announced a similar growth target and, as she notes, the firm actually tripled its size in the years that followed. The mobile gaming sector, which a few years ago was expanding at double‑digit rates, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the market matures. What was once a blue ocean of untapped users has become a crowded red sea, and future expansion will increasingly depend on capturing competitors' market share—either by winning over their players or by absorbing the studios themselves.
Acquiring companies is the easy part; integrating them into a cohesive organization is notoriously difficult. The industry is littered with examples of poorly executed mergers that led to studio closures and talent loss. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap for integration. Before buying Plarium, the group already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, 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 originally split into two “districts”: a Casual District for lighter, ad‑supported games and a Midcore District for titles that sit between casual and hardcore and rely primarily on in‑app purchases (IAPs). Redin explained that these districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, groups together the free‑to‑play, ad‑driven titles, while Playamp houses the IAP‑centric games that make up the bulk of MTG’s revenue. The renaming is more than cosmetic; it signals a cultural shift toward building what Redin calls "one of the leading gaming villages." The idea is to create an environment that developers want to belong to, thereby improving employee retention and smoothing the integration of newly acquired teams.
"Gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions," Redin said. "People are one of our biggest assets, but you also need to create an environment for them to thrive. We buy companies because we want the founders and their teams to stay on board after the deal— that’s when the real story begins and you can scale the business. The only way to make sure they stay is to give them a place they enjoy working in." A key component of the integration plan is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group.
Redin has been pushing for a unified tech stack since she became CEO in 2020, but she says Plarium gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. "Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company," she noted, adding that the standardisation effort is being applied selectively.
The Playsimple division will use a core tech foundation that will serve future casual‑district acquisitions, while the Midcore (Playamp) side will adopt parts of Plarium’s technology suite in a measured way, ensuring that any shared tools actually improve outcomes for each studio. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin emphasized that the goal is to maximise the return on investment by giving studios the best possible technical foundation. "We want to make sure 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." Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is another pillar of MTG’s future strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is looking to expand AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin sees this as part of a broader industry trend where AI is woven into the production pipeline to accelerate development, improve quality, and enable faster iteration.
She described AI as "significantly more powerful than any other tool we have had before" and stressed the need to find the right balance between automation and human creativity. The company’s AI roadmap focuses on augmenting existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and analytics.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being packaged into the Plarium tech suite and rolled out group‑wide, with the caveat that each studio must operate within an overarching AI framework that defines permissible uses and safeguards. When asked whether AI will eventually replace human designers, Redin was cautious.
"I often get the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do? And I actually don't think so," she replied.
"Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate. But if we don’t embrace AI, we will fall behind competitors.
AI can super‑charge everything we do while we keep the creativity, innovation, and vision of our team." Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s earnings now come from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by the single casual studio Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the business. She mentioned that MTG acquired Snowprint a few years ago and would love to replicate that success with additional studios of a similar profile.
She also hinted at the possibility of adding a third "district" to the gaming village, one that would likely centre on the core capabilities of marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the push for new titles, Redin reaffirmed MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs. The top‑ten mobile games list changes very little year over year, and MTG’s strategy has always been to back proven franchises while still maintaining a pipeline of fresh concepts.
Raid: Shadow Legends, for instance, is expected to have many more years of profitability, yet Plarium is also preparing a new title for a soft launch early next year. The broader market context is less rosy.
Industry observers, such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, have warned that Western mobile developers are “coasting,” with only two of the 22 mobile games that have generated over $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West. Supercell’s own recent incubation attempts have struggled, exemplified by the shutdown of Squad Busters after a brief launch. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of creating hit games at scale but argues that abandoning new‑game development would erode the creative DNA of the studios.
"Investing in new games is essential to retain creativity, passion, and drive," she said. "We’ve had hyper‑growth, then a slowdown, and now a stable low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth environment. To grow beyond that, you need strong evergreen IPs and a steady flow of new releases." In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, unified technology platforms, and a measured embrace of generative AI—all aimed at doubling the company’s size while preserving the creative spirit that fuels its most successful games.
The plan is ambitious, but with a clear focus on people, process, and technology, Redin believes the Swedish group can navigate a maturing market and continue to thrive in the competitive world of mobile gaming.