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‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. Yet, according to MTG’s president and chief executive Maria Redin, that transaction is only the opening move in a much larger game plan.
Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the firm’s ambition, set after the Plarium deal, is to double the size of the group once again – and to do so within a three‑to‑five‑year horizon. “We want to keep feeding organic growth, but to sustain that momentum we’ll need to pursue additional acquisitions,” she explained. The target is bold, but Redin noted that MTG has already proven its capacity to scale quickly: the company set a similar goal in 2021 and, according to her, succeeded in tripling its size.
The mobile market that once grew at double‑digit rates has now settled into a more modest single‑digit pace, reflecting a maturing ecosystem. What was once a blue ocean of untapped users has turned into a crowded, competitive arena where expansion often means taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Acquiring studios is the easier half of the equation; the real challenge lies in integrating those companies without disrupting their creative engines.
The industry is littered with cautionary tales of acquisitions that resulted in studio closures due to poor integration. MTG entered the acquisition phase already owning 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 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 Plarium purchase, the districts were rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, now houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp aggregates the portfolio of games that rely on in‑app purchases, which represent the bulk of MTG’s revenue. Redin emphasizes that the rebranding is more than a cosmetic change.
She envisions MTG evolving into “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase chosen deliberately to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees. Retaining talent, especially the founders and core teams of newly acquired studios, is a top priority. “People are our biggest asset,” Redin said. “If we want the founders and their teams to stay after a deal, we must create an environment they enjoy and where they can thrive.” A parallel initiative underway since Redin took the helm in 2020 is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group.
The Plarium acquisition provided the scale needed to roll out a unified tech stack more comprehensively. However, Redin is careful to note that the needs of Playsimple and Playamp differ dramatically, so the standardisation effort is tailored to each division. For the Casual District, Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve as the template for future studios, while the Midcore side will selectively adopt components of Plarium’s technology suite, after a thorough internal assessment of where shared tools make sense. Key Plarium platforms – the GoGame marketing engine and the PDP data platform – are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality.
Redin believes that concentrating resources on the most impactful tools will amplify the output of all studios. “We have fantastic game makers across the group,” she said. “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 strategy.
Generative AI is already reshaping content creation at InnoGames, where AI‑generated assets have been used for the mobile title Sunrise Village and are slated for broader rollout. Redin observes that AI is being woven into many production pipelines across the mobile sector, from A/B testing and graphic creation to quality assurance.
“AI is significantly more powerful than any tool we’ve had before,” she noted, adding that the company is experimenting with AI layers that augment existing workflows without replacing human creativity. The company’s approach is to allow individual studios to experiment within a shared AI framework, then disseminate successful solutions across the group. “If one studio develops a breakthrough, we can roll it out quickly at scale,” Redin explained. While she cautions against assuming AI will replace all creative work, she stresses that ignoring the technology would leave MTG lagging behind competitors.
Financially, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides of the portfolio.
She cites Snowprint as an example of a studio she would love to replicate globally, saying, “If we could find five more Snowprints around the world, that would be fantastic.” The casual side, currently represented by a single studio (Playsimple), is also a target for expansion, and Redin hints at the possibility of adding a third “district” that would leverage the group’s core capabilities in marketing and data. When asked about the future of mobile gaming, Redin observes that the top‑ten charts have become remarkably stable. “The same games keep dominating year after year,” she said, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs. Nevertheless, she acknowledges the importance of a fresh pipeline: “Raid has many years left, but we still need new titles to keep the creative engine humming.” 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 mobile games that have surpassed $1 billion in revenue since 2020 originated in the West. Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, with projects like Squad Busters being shuttered after a short run. Redin concedes that building a hit from scratch is difficult, but she believes it is essential for maintaining the DNA of each studio. “If we stop investing in new games, we risk losing the creativity and passion that drive us,” she said.
Looking ahead, she remains optimistic about the market’s size – roughly three billion gamers worldwide – but realistic about growth rates, which now hover in the low‑ to mid‑single‑digit range. “We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past,” Redin concluded, “but by nurturing evergreen franchises and continually bringing fresh experiences to players, we can still achieve meaningful expansion."