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 game Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in what MTG’s chief executive and president, Maria Redin, describes as an aggressive expansion plan. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium acquisition, is to double its overall size once again. "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 for that doubling is bold: Redin aims to achieve it within roughly three to five years. She noted that MTG has already demonstrated the ability to scale quickly, recalling that the firm set a similar target in 2021 and ended up tripling its footprint. 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 highly competitive red sea, where growth often means capturing market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Acquiring studios is the easy part; integrating them successfully is where many companies stumble. The industry is littered with stories of poorly managed mergers that resulted in studio closures.
MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap for integration. 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 (the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences). The districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, focuses on free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp houses the majority of MTG’s revenue‑generating games that rely on in‑app purchases. The rebranding is more than cosmetic.
Redin wants to create "one of the leading gaming villages," a phrase that signals a community‑oriented culture aimed at retaining talent and fostering collaboration across the many acquired studios. "Gaming is the best marriage between creativity and data‑driven decisions," she explained. "People are one of our biggest assets, but you also need to create an environment for them to thrive.
We buy companies because we want the founders and teams to stay on board after the deal – that’s when the real story begins and you can scale the business. The only way to keep them is to build a place they enjoy working in." A key element of the integration effort is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has pursued a unified tech stack since becoming CEO in 2020, but she says the scale provided by the Plarium acquisition finally allowed MTG to roll out the vision fully. "Not everything needs to be built uniquely for every single company," she noted.
The company is careful to avoid the pitfalls seen elsewhere. For example, Electronic Arts’ forced adoption of the Frostbite engine caused significant disruption for studios working on titles like Mass Effect. MTG’s approach distinguishes between the needs of Playsimple and Playamp. The casual division will use a common tech foundation that will serve future casual acquisitions, while the midcore side will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s technology suite where they add clear value.
Redin explained that an internal assessment identified which tools could be shared and which should remain separate. "Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and PDP data platform are being used across MTG, and we are adding features and functionality to them," she said. "We want to make sure we put our efforts where we get the biggest bang for our buck.
We have some amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we want to super‑charge that with a tech suite they can leverage." Generative AI is another pillar of MTG’s modernization strategy. InnoGames, for instance, has been using AI to generate all content for its mobile title Sunrise Village and plans to expand AI‑driven production across its portfolio.
Redin observes that AI is becoming embedded in many mobile development pipelines. "We are having similar discussions across the industry about how to embrace new technology in our production chain," she said, adding that generative AI is "significantly more powerful than any other tool we have had before." The company’s AI roadmap focuses on augmenting existing workflows rather than replacing them. AI is being layered onto tools for A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance and more.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being rolled into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid diffusion of best practices. "We need to allow our different studios to try different things, as long as they fit into our overarching AI framework on the dos and don’ts," Redin explained. "When one company develops something really good, we can quickly roll it out on a broader scale." When asked whether AI is now indispensable for competing in the fast‑moving mobile market, Redin cautioned against hyperbole. "I often get the question, is gaming AI going to be able to do everything you do?
I don’t think so," she replied. "What’s important is that our talent has amazing creativity, and that isn’t yet within AI.
However, if we don’t embrace AI we will be slower than our competitors. AI can super‑charge everything we do while we keep the creativity, innovation and vision of our team." According to Redin, roughly 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. She is eager to broaden both sides of the business.
"We bought Snowprint a couple of years back, and if we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic. On the casual side we would like to add more scale," she said. Currently Playsimple is essentially a single studio, yet it contributes a meaningful share of revenue. Redin hinted at the possibility of adding a third district to the gaming village, though the exact focus is still under discussion.
It could centre on leveraging the marketing platforms or data capabilities that MTG has built, creating a new niche within the broader ecosystem. From a product perspective, the outlook remains familiar. The top‑ten mobile games list changes little year after year, and MTG’s strategy has always hinged on evergreen IPs—games that generate revenue for many years. Raid: Shadow Legends, for example, still has a long runway ahead.
At the same time, Redin acknowledges the necessity of a fresh pipeline. "We believe in evergreen IPs, but we also need new games to keep the pipeline flowing," she said.
The challenge of launching successful new titles is evident across the industry. Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen warned that the western mobile market is "coasting," noting that only two of the 22 mobile games that have surpassed $1 billion since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have faced setbacks, such as the recent shutdown of Squad Busters after its 2024 launch.
Redin agrees that creating hit games is difficult, but she stresses that abandoning new‑game investment would erode the creative DNA of MTG’s studios. "Plarium has a new title set to soft‑launch early next year," she revealed, underscoring the importance of continual innovation.
Looking at the broader market, Redin sees ample opportunity despite the sector’s maturation. With three billion gamers worldwide, the audience remains compelling, even as gaming competes for attention with streaming services and social media. Growth rates have settled into low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit territory, and surpassing that baseline will require both strong evergreen franchises and a steady flow of new releases. In summary, MTG’s roadmap under Maria Redin blends aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI augmentation, and a balanced portfolio of long‑standing and emerging titles.
The company aims to double its size within the next few years while fostering a collaborative "gaming village" that retains talent, maximises technical efficiencies, and continues to deliver engaging mobile experiences to a global audience.