In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile‑gaming powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) closed a $620 million deal to acquire Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, while already sizable, appears to be only the opening move in a broader, aggressive growth strategy.
"We set out the vision last year that, following the Plarium acquisition, we want to double our size again," MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. "We will continue to drive organic growth, but to achieve the scale we need further acquisitions." Redin’s timetable for this doubling is bold: she aims to hit the target within a three‑to‑five‑year window. The Swedish group already has a track record of rapid expansion; she noted that a similar ambition set in 2021 resulted in the company tripling its size. The mobile market, once characterized by double‑digit year‑on‑year growth, has now settled into single‑digit expansion as the sector matures.
What was once a blue‑ocean of untapped users has become a crowded, highly competitive arena where growth often means capturing market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Acquiring studios is the relatively straightforward part of the equation—integrating them successfully is where many companies stumble. The industry is littered with stories of failed mergers that culminated in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear integration roadmap.
Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers, 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”: a Casual District and a Midcore District (midcore referring to games that sit between purely casual and hardcore experiences). The districts have since been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. 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—games that rely on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
The rebranding goes beyond a cosmetic name change. Redin wants to create what she calls "one of the leading gaming villages," a community‑oriented concept designed to foster employee loyalty and smooth integration of newly acquired teams.
"Gaming is the best marriage of creativity and data‑driven decisions," she said. "People are our biggest asset, but we must also build an environment where they can thrive. When we acquire a company, we want the founders and their teams to stay on board because that is when the real story begins and we can scale the business further.
The only way to ensure they stay is to give them a workplace they enjoy." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its network. Redin explained that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; a common foundation can drive efficiencies. This standardisation drive began when she became CEO in 2020, but the Plarium acquisition gave MTG the scale needed to roll it out fully.
The pitfalls of forced tech uniformity are well known. Electronic Arts, for example, forced many of its studios to adopt the Frostbite engine, creating friction and delays on projects such as Mass Effect.
Redin is careful to differentiate the needs of the two districts. "Playsimple’s tech stack will become the baseline for future casual studios, while for Midcore we are selectively adopting parts of Plarium’s suite across the group," she said.
"We have conducted a thorough internal assessment to decide where shared tools make sense and where they do not." Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin believes this will boost the output of all studios: "We want to invest where we get the biggest bang for our buck.
Our Playamp studios are already great game makers; we aim to supercharge them with a tech suite that elevates everything they already do." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s modernization agenda. InnoGames, for instance, has been using AI to generate all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and is exploring broader AI‑driven content creation across its catalogue. Redin observes that AI integration is now a common discussion point across the mobile sector. "Generative AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before," she noted, adding that the industry is collectively figuring out how to balance workflow changes with preserving creative integrity.
The company’s AI strategy focuses on layering intelligent tools onto existing pipelines—enhancing A/B testing, graphics production, quality assurance, and more. Successful AI solutions from individual MTG studios are being folded into the Plarium tech suite for company‑wide rollout. Redin emphasised flexibility: "We allow studios to experiment within our overarching AI framework, share learnings, and quickly propagate breakthroughs across the group." When asked whether AI is now indispensable for competing in mobile gaming, Redin cautioned against overstatement.
"I don’t think AI will replace human creativity," she said. "Our talent’s imagination remains essential. However, ignoring AI would leave us slower than competitors. By pairing our creative teams with cutting‑edge technology, we can accelerate development, improve quality, and bring games to market faster." Currently, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue is generated by the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % coming from Playsimple.
Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the portfolio. "We acquired Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint worldwide would be fantastic.
On the casual side, we’d like to add more scale," she explained. Although Playsimple presently consists of a single studio, it still contributes a significant slice of revenue, and MTG is contemplating the creation of a third district to further diversify its ecosystem. The shape of this potential new district is still under discussion, but Redin hinted it would leverage existing marketing platforms or data capabilities. From a product perspective, the outlook remains familiar.
The top ten mobile games change little year over year, and MTG’s strategy has always hinged on evergreen intellectual properties. While Raid: Shadow Legends still has many profitable years ahead, Redin stresses the importance of a fresh pipeline: "Investing in new games is crucial; otherwise we lose the creative DNA that fuels our studios." The broader industry context is sobering. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the western mobile market is "coasting," noting that only two of the 22 titles surpassing $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, with projects like Squad Busters being shuttered after a brief launch.
Redin acknowledges the difficulty: "It’s hard to make a hit and scale it, but abandoning new‑game investment would erode the very creativity that defines our studios." Looking ahead, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s size and potential. "There are three billion gamers worldwide, so the market is still compelling," she said. "Growth rates have settled into low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit territory, but we can exceed that by nurturing strong evergreen IPs and continuously delivering fresh experiences." In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, unified technology platforms, and a measured embrace of generative AI—all aimed at doubling the company’s scale within five years while preserving the creative spirit that fuels its game‑making engine.