In February of last year, the Swedish 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 act in what MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion agenda.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s vision, set after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its overall size once more. “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 bold: Redin aims to achieve the doubling within three to five years.
She noted that MTG had already pursued a similar ambition in 2021, when the group tripled its scale in a relatively short period. The mobile gaming market, once characterized by double‑digit growth, has now settled into single‑digit expansion as the sector matures.
What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a fiercely contested red‑ocean, where growth increasingly means taking market share from competitors or absorbing them outright. While buying studios is the easier half of the equation, integrating those businesses into a cohesive whole is notoriously difficult. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that led to studio closures due to poor integration. MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap for success.
Before the Plarium deal, the group already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, including InnoGames (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”: the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. The districts have since been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp.
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 goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages,” a name chosen deliberately to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees. Retaining talent and ensuring smooth cultural integration are top priorities for a company that has grown quickly through multiple purchases.
“People are one of our biggest assets,” Redin explained. “We buy our companies, which also means that we want the founders and the teams to stay on board post‑acquisition, because that’s when the true exciting story should start and you continue to scale the businesses.” She emphasizes that a supportive environment is the key to keeping those teams engaged. Standardising technology across the newly enlarged group is another pillar of the plan.
Since becoming CEO in 2020, Redin has pushed for a unified tech stack, but she says the scale achieved after adding Plarium finally allowed the vision to be fully executed. The approach is pragmatic: not every tool needs to be rebuilt for each studio. However, the tech requirements for Playsimple differ markedly from those of Playamp, so the two divisions are being equipped with separate, specialised suites.
For the Midcore side, MTG has selected components of Plarium’s technology platform—including the GoGame marketing system and a product‑detail‑page data suite—and is rolling them out selectively across the group. “We’ve done a very thorough internal assessment on where it makes sense to collaborate and share technical tools, and where it doesn’t,” Redin said. The company is also adding new features to Plarium’s platforms to boost overall studio productivity.
“We want to make sure that we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” she noted, highlighting the intention to supercharge Playamp’s developers with a robust, shared tech foundation. Artificial intelligence is another catalyst for change. Generative AI is already reshaping content creation at MTG’s subsidiaries.
InnoGames, for example, has been using AI to generate all the assets for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI‑driven pipelines. Redin observes that AI is being woven into many production processes—A/B testing, graphics generation, quality assurance, and more.
Successful AI tools from individual studios are being incorporated into the company‑wide Plarium suite, creating a feedback loop that accelerates innovation. When asked whether AI could eventually replace human creativity, Redin is cautious. She believes AI will not supplant the imaginative spark that developers bring, but she also warns that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind rivals. “If we don’t embrace AI, we are going to be slower than what our competitors are,” she said.
“We keep the creativity, innovation, and vision of our team, but we can actually leverage completely new levels of technology next to it.” Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now stems from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides.
She cites the recent acquisition of Snowprint and expresses a desire to replicate that success with additional studios of similar calibre. On the casual front, she notes that Playsimple is currently a single studio but still contributes a respectable share of earnings.
Looking ahead, Redin hints at the possibility of adding a third “district” to the gaming village, likely centred around the core capabilities of MTG’s marketing and data platforms. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin remains confident about growth prospects. She points out that the top‑ten mobile games change little year over year, underscoring the importance of evergreen IPs. While Raid: Shadow Legends is expected to enjoy many more years of profitability, MTG continues to invest in new titles to keep the creative pipeline flowing.
Plarium, for instance, has a new game slated for a soft launch early next year. Industry observers such as Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warn that the Western mobile market is “coasting,” with only a handful of new billion‑dollar titles emerging recently. Redin acknowledges the difficulty of launching successful new games but argues that a steady flow of fresh IP is essential to preserve studio DNA, creativity, and passion. In summary, MTG’s roadmap combines aggressive M&A, thoughtful rebranding, selective technology standardisation, and AI‑enhanced production to double the company’s size within a few years.
By balancing the strength of proven evergreen franchises with the pursuit of innovative new experiences, Redin believes the group can sustain growth even as the broader mobile gaming market settles into modest single‑digit expansion.