In February of the previous year, Sweden's mobile entertainment conglomerate Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a high‑profile purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the wildly popular hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends, for roughly $620 million. That transaction, however, appears to be merely the opening move in a broader strategic play. "Last year we articulated a clear vision: after bringing Plarium into the fold, we aim to double the size of MTG once more," explained Maria Redin, MTG's president and chief executive officer, in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
"Organic growth will continue to be a priority, but achieving it at the scale we envision will require further acquisitions." Redin set a bold timeline for this expansion—she expects the company to reach the doubling target within three to five years. The ambition is not unprecedented; MTG pursued a similar goal in 2021 and, according to Redin, succeeded in tripling its scale during that period. The mobile gaming sector, which a few years ago was expanding at double‑digit rates, has now settled into single‑digit growth, reflecting a market that is rapidly maturing.
What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has turned increasingly competitive, forcing firms to capture market share from rivals or absorb them outright. Acquiring other studios is the easier half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating those businesses into a cohesive whole. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of poorly executed mergers that culminated in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a structured approach to avoid those pitfalls.
Before the Plarium deal, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios, including InnoGames (known for Forge of Empires), Snowprint (creator of Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (developer of F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (behind Bloons TD 6) and Futureplay (maker of Merge Gardens). These studios were grouped into two operational clusters: the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences. The company recently rebranded these clusters as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the Indian studio behind WordTrip, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp concentrates on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now represent the bulk of MTG's earnings. The rebranding is only the tip of the iceberg. Redin says the overarching ambition is to forge "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase chosen deliberately to evoke a sense of community and belonging.
The aim is to nurture employee retention and smooth integration, a critical factor when a firm expands by snapping up numerous studios in quick succession. "Gaming sits at the intersection of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin noted.
"Our people are our greatest asset, but we must also create an environment where they can flourish. When we acquire a company, we intend for the founders and their teams to stay on board, because the real story begins after the purchase and we can then scale the business together.
The only way to ensure they remain is to build a workplace they enjoy." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and toolsets across its portfolio—a project Redin began championing when she assumed the CEO role in 2020. The Plarium acquisition gave the group sufficient scale to roll out this vision comprehensively. While tech standardisation can be fraught—EA's attempt to force the Frostbite engine on all its studios caused significant disruption—Redin is careful to differentiate the needs of the two districts. Playsimple's stack will serve as a foundation for future casual acquisitions, whereas the Midcore division will adopt selected components of Plarium's technology suite, deployed selectively after a thorough internal assessment of where shared tools make sense.
Key Plarium platforms, such as the GoGame marketing system and the PDP data infrastructure, are already being leveraged across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin emphasises that the goal is to concentrate resources where they deliver the highest return, supercharging the existing talent pool with a robust, shared tech suite.
Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is another pillar of MTG's forward‑looking strategy. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to broaden AI‑driven creation across its catalogue.
Redin observes that AI integration is becoming a common discussion point across the mobile industry. "Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we've had before," she said. "We are all trying to find the right balance—where to adjust workflows, where to keep them intact, and where AI can add the most value. Ultimately, the technology should make our games more relevant to players and accelerate our ability to launch new titles, ideally with higher quality." MTG's approach is to layer AI onto existing pipelines for tasks such as A/B testing, graphic generation, quality assurance, and more.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid dissemination of best practices throughout the organisation. When asked whether AI has become indispensable in the hyper‑competitive mobile market, Redin cautioned against overstatement. "I often hear the question of whether gaming AI will eventually replace human creators.
I don't think so. Creativity remains a uniquely human trait that AI hasn't mastered. However, ignoring AI would leave us trailing competitors. Embracing it lets us maintain our creative vision while benefiting from unprecedented efficiency," she explained.
She highlighted concrete examples where AI can alleviate capacity constraints—automating code analysis, generating art assets, and handling complex logic—thereby freeing developers to focus on higher‑order design work. Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG's income now stems from the Playamp division, with the casual side (Playsimple) contributing about 20 %. Redin expressed enthusiasm for expanding both sides of the business. "We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios with a similar DNA would be fantastic.
On the casual front, we currently have a single studio—Playsimple—but we aim to scale that as well," she said. Looking ahead, Redin hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the "gaming village," though its exact focus remains undefined. She suggested it would likely revolve around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics, extending the existing ecosystem. From a product perspective, the mobile top‑ten chart remains remarkably stable.
"Every year we run the same analysis and see the same games dominating the rankings," Redin observed. This consistency underpins MTG's long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs.
While Raid: Shadow Legends is expected to enjoy many more profitable years, the company also recognises the necessity of a fresh pipeline. The broader industry context is sobering. Supercell's CEO Ilkka Paananen warned that Western mobile gaming is "coasting," noting that only two of the 22 titles surpassing $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originated from the West.
Even Supercell's own incubation efforts have struggled, with projects like Squad Busters being shuttered after a brief launch. Redin acknowledges these challenges: "Creating a hit game and scaling it is difficult for any studio. Yet abandoning new‑title development would erode the creative DNA of our studios.
Maintaining a pipeline of fresh experiences is essential for long‑term vitality." In summary, Redin sees a mature yet still sizable market—over three billion gamers worldwide—as offering modest but sustainable growth. "We won't see the hyper‑growth of the early mobile era, but low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit expansion is realistic.
To exceed that baseline, we must double‑down on strong evergreen franchises while also bringing new games to market," she concluded.