In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile entertainment leader Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, while already sizable, appears to be only the opening move in a broader expansion play.
"Last year we set a vision that, following the Plarium acquisition, we want to double our size again," MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. "We intend to keep fueling organic growth, but to do so we will need to pursue additional acquisitions." Redin’s timetable is bold: she aims to achieve the doubling within a three‑to‑five‑year window.
The Swedish group has already demonstrated an appetite for rapid scaling—Redin recalled that MTG pursued a similar ambition in 2021 and, in her words, "tripled" its footprint. A few years ago the mobile sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, but that momentum has now tapered to single‑digit growth, signalling a market that is maturing quickly. What once felt like a blue ocean has turned a deep red, meaning that future expansion will often require taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright.
Acquiring companies is the easy half of the equation; integrating them into a cohesive whole is where many firms stumble. The gaming world is littered with cautionary tales of poorly managed mergers that end in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios such as InnoGames (creator of 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 (midcore describing games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). The districts have now been renamed Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑driven titles, while Playamp contains the in‑app‑purchase‑heavy games that make up the bulk of MTG’s revenue. The rebranding does more than change labels. Redin says the goal is to create "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community that employees want to belong to.
Retaining talent and ensuring smooth integration are top priorities for a company that has been on an acquisition binge. "Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explained. "People are our greatest asset, but we also need to build an environment where they can thrive.
When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business. The only way to keep them is to make sure they enjoy the environment we create." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio.
Redin noted that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a unified approach can generate efficiencies. This standardisation drive began when she took the helm in 2020, but she says the Plarium acquisition gave MTG the scale needed to roll the vision out fully. The industry has seen the downside of forced tech uniformity—Electronic Arts’ push to adopt its proprietary Frostbite engine caused significant friction for teams working on titles like Mass Effect. Redin is aware of those lessons and stresses that the tech requirements of Playsimple differ dramatically from those of Playamp, so the two divisions are being handled separately.
"Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for any future casual‑district acquisitions," she said. "For Midcore, we’ve selected parts of Plarium’s suite to use group‑wide, but we’re deploying it selectively to ensure the end result benefits every studio. We conducted a thorough internal assessment to decide where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it does not." Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being rolled out across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added on top.
Redin believes this will lift the output of all studios. "We want to invest where we get the biggest bang for our buck," she said. "We have amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we aim to super‑charge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all of the content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI‑driven content creation.
Redin says AI is becoming embedded throughout the mobile production pipeline. "Across the industry, we’re all discussing how to adopt new technology in our workflows," she observed.
"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 give us a boost? Ultimately, it’s about using new tech to make our games more relevant to players and, ideally, to bring new titles to market faster and better." MTG is layering 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 for company‑wide use.
"We need to let studios experiment within our overarching AI framework—what’s allowed and what isn’t—then share learnings. When one studio cracks something great, we can quickly roll it out across the group," Redin explained. When asked whether AI has become indispensable in the hyper‑competitive mobile arena, Redin was cautious.
"It’s dangerous to claim AI will replace everything," she said. "Our talent’s creativity is still something AI can’t replicate.
But if we ignore AI, we’ll fall behind competitors. Embracing AI lets us keep our creative vision while leveraging new technological horsepower." She highlighted that AI can help address capacity shortfalls in coding, art, analytics and complex logic, effectively super‑charging the development process without sacrificing the human spark that makes games compelling. Currently about 80 % of MTG’s revenue comes from the Playamp division, and Redin is eager to broaden the studio roster.
"We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we want to add more scale," she said. At present the casual side consists of a single studio—Playsimple—but it still contributes roughly 20 % of total revenue. Redin hinted at the possibility of a third district in the future, though its exact shape remains undefined.
"Any new district would build on our core capabilities—whether that means leveraging our marketing platforms or data assets," she said. Regarding the games themselves, the outlook mirrors the present: the top‑ten mobile titles change very little year over year. "Our analysis shows the same games dominate the charts annually," Redin noted. "From day one, we believed in evergreen IPs." That belief translates into a strategy of investing in proven titles while still maintaining a pipeline of new games.
"Raid has many years left, but we also need fresh IPs to keep the pipeline healthy," she said. The industry’s broader context is sobering. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the Western mobile market is "coasting," with only two of the 22 games that have surpassed $1 billion since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled; its Squad Busters project was shut down after a 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges the difficulty: "It’s hard to create a hit and then scale it. Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year.
Not investing in new games would strip studios of their creative DNA, which is essential for passion and drive." Looking at the macro picture, Redin sees growth potential despite market maturity. "We’ve moved from hyper‑growth to a period of stabilization and modest growth. With three billion gamers worldwide, the market is still compelling. Yes, we compete for attention with streaming services and social media, but I remain confident there’s room to grow." She cautions, however, that the explosive growth of the past is unlikely to return.
"Depending on the data source, we’re seeing low to mid‑single‑digit growth. To exceed that, you must double down on strong evergreen IPs and also bring fresh games to market," Redin concluded.