In February of the previous year, Swedish mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the studio behind the blockbuster hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. That transaction, however, is only the opening move in a broader expansion plan, according to MTG’s president and chief executive, Maria Redin. Redin told GamesIndustry.biz that the company’s ambition, set after the Plarium deal, 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 this growth spurt is aggressive: Redin aims to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years. She noted that MTG has already demonstrated the capacity to scale quickly, pointing out that the firm set a similar goal in 2021 and ultimately tripled its revenue and studio count in the ensuing years. The mobile market that once grew at double‑digit rates has now settled into single‑digit growth, signalling a maturing landscape. What used to be a blue‑ocean of untapped users has turned “red” – competition is fierce, and any further expansion will likely require either stealing market share from rivals or absorbing them outright.
Acquiring companies is the straightforward part; the real challenge lies in integrating them smoothly. The games industry is littered with cautionary tales of mergers that resulted in studio closures due to cultural clashes or technical incompatibilities. MTG, however, believes it has a clear integration roadmap. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile studios such as InnoGames (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”: the Casual District and the Midcore District – the latter covering games that sit between casual and hardcore experiences. Following the Plarium 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 majority of MTG’s portfolio, which relies on in‑app purchases (IAPs).
Redin stresses that the rebranding goes beyond a cosmetic change. Her goal is to create “one of the leading gaming villages,” a phrase she says is meant to foster a sense of community and belonging among employees. Retaining talent is critical when a company grows by buying many studios.
“People are one of our biggest assets,” Redin explained. “We buy our companies, which also means that we want the founders and the teams to stay on board post‑acquisition, because that’s when the true exciting story should start and you continue to scale the businesses.
The only way you can make sure they stay is if you create an environment which they enjoy.” A key pillar of that environment is the standardisation of technology and tools across the group. Redin has been pushing for a unified tech stack since she became CEO in 2020, but she says the scale required to roll it out fully only materialised after Plarium joined MTG. The company is now aligning the tech used by its casual and midcore studios, while still respecting the distinct needs of each segment. “Playsimple and their tech stack is going to be the foundation for future companies we onboard in the Casual District,” she noted.
“For Midcore, we have chosen some of the Plarium tech suite to use group‑wide, but we’re doing the rollout in a very selective way to make sure the end game is better for all the companies.” Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system have already been deployed across MTG, and the company is adding new features to enhance them. Redin believes that by concentrating resources on the most impactful tools, MTG can “supercharge” its existing developers and raise the overall quality of output. Artificial intelligence is another area where MTG is investing heavily. InnoGames, for example, has been generating content for its mobile title Sunrise Village with AI for some time and is now looking to broaden AI‑driven production across its catalogue.
Redin observes that generative AI is becoming a standard part of the mobile development workflow, helping with A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance and more. She stresses that AI is meant to augment, not replace, human creativity: “Our talent has amazing creativity that doesn’t sit yet within AI.
If we don’t embrace AI we will be slower than our competitors, but we keep the creativity, innovation, and vision of our team while leveraging new technology.” Approximately 80 % of MTG’s revenue now comes from the Playamp division, with the casual side (currently represented mainly by Playsimple) contributing the remaining 20 %. Redin is eager to broaden both sides.
She mentions that the company bought Snowprint a few years ago and would love to find “five more Snowprints around the world.” On the casual front, she envisions adding more studios to increase scale, and even contemplates a third “district” that would sit alongside Playsimple and Playamp, built around core capabilities such as marketing platforms or data analytics. When asked about the future of mobile gaming titles, Redin says the top‑ten list has remained remarkably stable, reinforcing MTG’s long‑standing belief in evergreen IPs.
Nonetheless, she acknowledges the necessity of a fresh pipeline: “Raid has many more years ahead of it… but that doesn’t mean we don’t believe in making new games, because you need to continue to have a pipeline of games coming to the market.” The broader industry context is sobering. Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen warned that the western mobile market is “coasting,” with only two of the 22 billion‑dollar titles since 2020 originating from the West.
Even Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled, as illustrated by the recent shutdown of Squad Busters. Redin concurs that creating a hit and scaling it is difficult, but she argues that abandoning new‑game development would erode the creative DNA of MTG’s studios.
Looking at the macro picture, Redin remains optimistic about the market’s size – three billion gamers worldwide – but realistic about growth rates. “We’ve had hyper growth and then a decline back to stabilization and low levels of growth,” she said. “Depending on the data source, everything from low single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth is what we see.
If you want to grow above and beyond that, you need to continue to invest in your strong evergreen IPs, but you also need to be able to bring new games to the market.” In summary, MTG’s strategy under Maria Redin combines aggressive acquisition, thoughtful integration, unified technology, AI‑enhanced production, and a balanced focus on both evergreen franchises and fresh titles. The aim is to double the company’s size within a few years while cultivating a collaborative “gaming village” that can thrive in an increasingly competitive, mature mobile landscape.