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. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer, that transaction is merely the opening move in a broader expansion agenda. "Last year we articulated a vision that, following the Plarium acquisition, we intend to double our size once more," Redin told GamesIndustry.biz.
"We will continue to push organic growth, but achieving that will require further acquisitions." The timeline for this ambition is aggressive: Redin targets a three‑to‑five‑year window to hit the doubling goal. She notes that MTG already set a comparable target in 2021 and, in her words, "we think we tripled" during that period. A few years ago, the mobile sector was expanding at double‑digit rates, but growth has now settled into single‑digit territory, reflecting a market that is rapidly maturing. What once resembled a blue ocean has turned decidedly red, meaning that future expansion will likely involve taking market share from rivals—or absorbing them outright.
Acquiring companies is the easy part; integrating them into an existing corporate structure is where many firms stumble. The games industry is littered with cautionary tales of botched integrations that culminated in studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear plan. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned several mobile studios, including 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": the Casual District and the Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences.
These divisions have now been renamed Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp contains the majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
The rebranding goes beyond a cosmetic change. Redin says the goal is to forge "one of the leading gaming villages." The deliberately cozy phrasing is meant to foster a sense of belonging among employees. Retaining talent and ensuring smooth integration is crucial for a company that has been on an acquisition spree.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin explains. "People are one of our greatest assets, but we must also provide 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 and we can scale the business.
The only way to keep them is to build a workplace they enjoy." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio. "Not everything needs to be built from scratch for each company," Redin says. The push for standardisation began when she became CEO in 2020, but she notes that the Plarium deal gave MTG the scale necessary to roll the vision out fully.
Industry experience shows the pitfalls of forced tech uniformity. For example, Electronic Arts’ attempt to mandate its Frostbite engine across all studios caused considerable friction on projects like Mass Effect. Redin acknowledges the difference in needs between Playsimple and Playamp, treating each division separately.
"Playsimple’s tech stack will become the foundation for future casual‑district acquisitions. For Midcore, we have selected components of Plarium’s technology to deploy group‑wide, but we are rolling it out 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," she says.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are now used across MTG, with additional features being added. Redin hopes this shared infrastructure will boost studio productivity. "We want to invest where we get the biggest return.
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 also reshaping MTG’s workflow, mirroring a broader trend in mobile gaming. InnoGames, for instance, has been generating all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village with AI for some time and is looking to expand AI‑driven content creation across its portfolio. "Most of the industry is having similar conversations about how to incorporate new technology into the production pipeline," Redin observes. She describes generative AI as "significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before." The company is experimenting with AI in areas such as A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and more.
Successful AI solutions from individual MTG studios are being folded into the broader Plarium tech suite. "We allow studios to experiment within our overarching AI framework—what’s allowed and what isn’t. When a team develops something valuable, we can quickly roll it out across the group," Redin explains. When asked whether AI has become indispensable in the ultra‑competitive mobile market, she cautions against exaggeration.
"I often get asked if gaming AI will eventually replace everything we do. I don’t think so.
Our talent’s creativity is still beyond AI’s reach. However, ignoring AI would leave us trailing competitors. Embracing it lets us move faster and improve quality." Redin points out that AI can help address capacity shortfalls in coding, art, and complex logic, effectively "supercharging" the development process while preserving the human creativity at the core of game design. Approximately 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, and Redin is eager to broaden the studio roster.
"We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint worldwide would be fantastic. On the casual side, we also want to add scale," she says. The casual district currently consists of a single studio—Playsimple—yet it contributes roughly 20 % of total revenue.
"We’ve been busy building Playamp and Playsimple and preparing for a potential IPO," Redin notes. "In the future we might add a third district to our gaming village, perhaps centred around our core capabilities like marketing platforms or data analytics." Regarding the games themselves, Redin says the future looks much like the present. The top ten mobile titles change little year over year, and MTG’s strategy has always focused on evergreen IPs.
While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many years of life ahead, the company also recognises the need for a steady pipeline of new titles. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen has 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; the Squad Busters project was discontinued after its 2024 launch. "Creating a hit game and scaling it is hard," Redin admits.
"Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year. Not investing in new games would erode the creative DNA of our studios.
Fresh ideas keep passion alive." Looking at the broader landscape, Redin believes growth is still possible despite a maturing market. "We have three billion gamers worldwide, so the market remains compelling. We compete for attention with streaming services and social media, but I’m confident there is still room to grow," she says.
"We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the early mobile era. Depending on the data source, growth now ranges from low single digits to mid‑single digits. To exceed that, we must continue to nurture our strong evergreen IPs while also bringing new games to market," Redin concludes.