In February of the previous year, Sweden’s mobile‑gaming powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collection title Raid: Shadow Legends. That deal, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion play, according to MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the acquisition of Plarium was part of a vision set out last year to "double the size of the group again" after the deal. She added that while organic growth will continue to be a priority, the company will need to pursue additional acquisitions to hit that target.
The timetable is aggressive: MTG aims to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. Redin noted that the firm has already demonstrated an ability to scale quickly, recalling that a similar ambition set in 2021 resulted in a tripling of the business. The mobile sector, once characterized by double‑digit expansion, has now settled into a single‑digit growth environment, signalling a maturing market. What was once an expansive blue ocean has turned a deep red, meaning that future growth will often require taking market share from competitors—or absorbing them outright.
Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating those studios smoothly. The industry is littered with cautionary tales of botched integrations that culminated in studio closures. MTG entered the Plarium deal already overseeing a portfolio of 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 previously grouped into two “districts”: a Casual District and a Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the acquisition, the districts were 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 in‑app‑purchase‑driven games that now constitute the bulk of MTG’s revenue.
The rebranding is more than cosmetic. Redin explained that the goal is to create "one of the leading gaming villages," a name chosen to evoke a sense of community that employees want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering integration are critical for a company that has been on a rapid acquisition spree.
"Gaming is the perfect marriage of creativity and data‑driven decision‑making," Redin said. "People are our greatest asset, 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 is when the real story begins and the business can be scaled further.
The only way to ensure they stay is to make the workplace enjoyable." Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and toolsets across its growing family of studios – a strategy Redin began pursuing when she became CEO in 2020, but which only gained sufficient scale after Plarium joined the group. She acknowledges the pitfalls of forced standardisation, citing Electronic Arts’ problematic rollout of the Frostbite engine across diverse titles.
To avoid similar issues, MTG treats the tech needs of Playsimple and Playamp separately. The casual division’s stack will become the foundation for future studios added to the Casual District, while the Midcore division will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s technology suite, ensuring that any shared tools genuinely add value.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being rolled out across MTG, with additional features and functionality being added to enhance studio output. Redin emphasised the importance of focusing resources where they deliver the greatest return: "We have amazing game makers across the group, and with Playamp we want to super‑charge them with 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 is looking to expand AI‑driven creation across its catalogue. Redin sees AI as a universal conversation point in the mobile industry, noting that generative AI tools are "significantly more powerful than any other tool we’ve had before." The company is layering AI onto existing pipelines for tasks such as A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and analytics.
Successful AI solutions from individual studios are being incorporated into the broader Plarium tech suite, allowing rapid diffusion of best practices. When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creativity, Redin cautioned against such deterministic thinking. She believes that while AI can accelerate production and fill capacity gaps, the core of game development – imagination, innovation, and vision – remains a human domain.
"If we ignore AI, we risk falling behind competitors," she said. "But we must keep the creativity of our teams and use AI as a supercharger, not a substitute." Financially, roughly 80 % of MTG’s revenue now stems from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin expressed a desire to broaden both sides of the business, noting that the company purchased Snowprint a few years ago and would welcome additional studios of a similar profile.
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 remains optimistic about growth prospects.
She observes that the top‑ten mobile games list changes very little year over year, underscoring the value of evergreen IPs like Raid. Nonetheless, she stresses the necessity of a steady pipeline of new titles to keep the ecosystem vibrant. Plarium, for instance, is preparing to soft‑launch a new game early next year. Industry peers warn that the western mobile market is "coasting," with only a handful of new billion‑dollar titles emerging from the West since 2020.
Yet Redin argues that abandoning investment in fresh games would erode the creative DNA of the studios. She believes that, while hyper‑growth may be a thing of the past, low‑to‑mid‑single‑digit expansion is still achievable if MTG continues to nurture its evergreen franchises while also bringing new experiences to market. In summary, Maria Redin’s roadmap for MTG blends aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, technology standardisation, AI augmentation, and a balanced portfolio of proven and emerging titles.
By fostering a collaborative "gaming village" culture and leveraging shared tools, MTG aims to double its size within the next few years while navigating a mature, highly competitive mobile gaming landscape.