In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collection game Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion plan, according to MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its 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 aggressive: she envisions achieving the doubling within three to five years. Redin noted that MTG had already pursued a similar target in 2021, a period in which the firm believes it tripled its scale. The mobile market, once characterized by double‑digit growth, has now settled into a single‑digit expansion rate, signalling a maturing industry.
What used to be a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned a deep red, meaning that future growth will likely come from capturing competitors’ market share or, more directly, by absorbing them. While buying studios is relatively straightforward, integrating them successfully is notoriously difficult. The games sector is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor integration.
MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers before adding Plarium, 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 grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District (midcore describing games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). The recent rebranding renamed these districts Playsimple and Playamp, respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that rely primarily on in‑app purchases, which now represent the bulk of MTG’s revenue. Beyond a cosmetic name change, Redin emphasized that the goal is to build “one of the leading gaming villages.” The phrasing is intentional: she wants to create an environment that people are eager to join and stay in. Retaining talent and fostering a cohesive culture are critical when a company expands rapidly through acquisitions. “Gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions,” Redin explained.
“People are one of our biggest assets, but you also need to create an environment for them to thrive.” She added that MTG aims to keep founders and teams on board after a purchase, believing that the real growth story begins once the acquired studio remains intact and can scale under the MTG umbrella. A key part of the integration strategy is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has pursued this goal since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the scale required to roll it out fully only materialised after the Plarium deal. “Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company,” she noted.
The company is careful, however, to recognise that the tech stack needed for Playsimple differs markedly from that of Playamp. Accordingly, the two divisions are being equipped with separate, specialised toolsets. For the Midcore side, MTG has selected components of Plarium’s technology suite to share group‑wide, but the rollout is selective to ensure each studio benefits.
An internal assessment identified where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it does not. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑data platform are already being used across the organisation, with MTG adding new features and functionality to enhance them.
Redin believes these shared resources will boost studio output: “We want to make sure that we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck.” Generative AI is another pillar of the company’s forward‑looking agenda. InnoGames, for example, has been using AI‑generated content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to broaden AI‑driven creation across its portfolio. Redin sees AI as a common discussion point throughout the mobile industry: “Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before.” She stresses the need to balance AI adoption with human creativity, noting that while AI can accelerate workflows—such as A/B testing, graphics production, and quality assurance—it cannot replace the imaginative spark that developers bring. MTG’s AI strategy involves layering new capabilities onto existing pipelines and allowing studios to experiment within a defined AI framework.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are then incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, enabling rapid, company‑wide deployment of proven innovations. When asked whether AI is now a prerequisite for competing in the mobile market, Redin cautioned against over‑hyping its role. “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 said. Nonetheless, she argued that ignoring AI would leave MTG lagging behind rivals. By pairing AI‑enhanced efficiency with the creative talent of its teams, MTG hopes to maintain a fast development cadence and improve game quality. Revenue-wise, about 80 % of MTG’s income stems from the Playamp division, while the casual side—currently represented by a single studio, Playsimple—contributes roughly 20 %.
Redin expressed enthusiasm for expanding both sides, noting that the company would love to acquire “five more Snowprints around the world” and increase the scale of the casual segment. She also hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, likely centred around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes evergreen IPs remain essential.
The top‑ten mobile games change little year over year, and MTG’s strategy has always leaned on long‑lived titles. Yet she also acknowledges the necessity of a fresh pipeline: “It’s hard to make a successful game and scale a game… but to not invest in new games would take away a little bit of the DNA of the different studios.” Plarium, for instance, is preparing a new title for a soft launch early next year.
The broader industry context is sobering. Western mobile developers have struggled to produce billion‑dollar hits recently, and even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have faced setbacks. Redin sees new titles as a crucial lever for growth in a market that now delivers low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit expansion rates.
While hyper‑growth may be a thing of the past, she remains confident that the combination of strong evergreen franchises and a steady flow of fresh games will keep MTG competitive in the years ahead.