In February of the previous year, Sweden’s 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 transaction, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion playbook, according to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive officer.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set shortly after the Plarium deal, is to double its overall size once more. “We defined the vision last year that, following the Plarium acquisition, we want to double again,” she explained.
“Organic growth will continue to be a priority, but achieving that scale will require additional acquisitions.” The timeline Redin cites is aggressive: she envisions the doubling occurring within a three‑to‑five‑year window. She noted that MTG has already demonstrated the capacity to grow quickly, pointing to a 2021 goal that resulted in the firm tripling its size. The mobile gaming sector, once characterized by double‑digit expansion, now registers single‑digit growth as the market matures. What was once a blue‑ocean landscape has turned decidedly 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 into an existing corporate structure is notoriously challenging. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of failed integrations that culminated in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a clear roadmap. Before adding Plarium, MTG already owned a suite of mobile developers, including InnoGames (known for Forge of Empires), Snowprint (Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus), Hutch (F1 Clash), Ninja Kiwi (Bloons TD 6), and Futureplay (Merge Gardens).
These studios were originally grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District—the latter covering games that sit between pure casual experiences and hardcore titles. The districts have since been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp, respectively. Playsimple, named after the India‑based WordTrip studio, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported games, while Playamp focuses on titles that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, which now constitute the bulk of MTG’s portfolio.
Redin says the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change; it reflects a vision of creating “one of the leading gaming villages.” The phrasing is intentional, aiming to foster a sense of community that encourages talent to stay and thrive. “Gaming is the ultimate marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making,” she remarked.
“People are our greatest asset, but they need an environment where they can flourish. When we acquire a studio, we want the founders and their teams to remain after the deal, because that is when the real story begins and the business can truly scale.” To support this integration, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio—a strategy Redin began pursuing when she became CEO in 2020. The Plarium acquisition gave the group enough scale to roll out the plan fully.
She cautioned, however, that the tech stack for Playsimple differs dramatically from that of Playamp, so the two divisions are being treated separately. “Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve as the baseline for future casual‑district studios,” Redin explained.
“For the midcore side, we have selected components of Plarium’s technology suite to apply group‑wide, but we are deploying them selectively to ensure each studio benefits.” She added that a thorough internal assessment identified where shared tools make sense and where bespoke solutions are required. Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system have already been rolled out across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to enhance their utility. The goal, Redin said, is to allocate resources where they generate the greatest return: “We have fantastic creators across the group.
With Playamp we want to super‑charge them using a tech suite that elevates everything they already do.” Artificial intelligence is another pillar of MTG’s modernization effort. 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 observes that AI is becoming embedded in many production pipelines throughout the mobile sector. She described generative AI as “significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” and emphasized the need to strike a balance between automation and human creativity.
“The challenge is figuring out where to adjust workflows and where to keep them intact,” she said. “Ultimately, AI should help us make games more relevant to players, accelerate time‑to‑market, and improve quality without sacrificing the creative spark that our teams bring.” MTG’s AI strategy involves layering intelligent capabilities onto existing tools for tasks such as A/B testing, graphic generation, quality assurance, and more. Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid dissemination of best practices across the organization.
When asked whether AI has become indispensable in today’s competitive mobile market, Redin was cautious. She does not believe AI will replace human designers entirely, but she warned that ignoring AI could leave MTG lagging behind rivals.
“If we don’t embrace AI, we risk falling behind,” she said. “We can keep our creativity, innovation, and vision, and let AI amplify them.” Revenue-wise, roughly 80 % of MTG’s income now stems from the Playamp division, while the casual side—currently represented by a single studio, Playsimple—contributes about 20 %. Redin expressed a desire to expand both sides, noting that the company acquired Snowprint a few years ago and would welcome additional studios with similar capabilities. She also hinted at the possibility of adding a third “district” to the gaming village, potentially centred around core competencies such as marketing platforms or data analytics.
Despite the market’s maturity, Redin believes the top‑ten mobile games list remains relatively stable, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen intellectual properties. Nonetheless, she stressed the importance of a continuous pipeline of new titles. “Raid has many years ahead of it, but we still need fresh games to keep the pipeline healthy,” she said. The broader industry context is sobering: Western mobile developers have struggled to launch new billion‑dollar hits, with only two out of 22 such titles since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s recent incubation effort, Squad Busters, was discontinued after a brief launch. Redin acknowledged the difficulty of creating and scaling new games, but argued that investing in novel IPs is essential to preserve studio culture, creativity, and passion.
Looking ahead, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s overall potential. With an estimated three billion gamers worldwide, she sees a compelling opportunity, even though growth rates have settled into low‑ to mid‑single‑digit figures. “We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past,” she conceded, “but by nurturing strong evergreen franchises and bringing new experiences to market, we can continue to expand in a maturing ecosystem.”