In February of last year, Sweden’s mobile powerhouse Modern Times Group (MTG) completed a $620 million purchase of Plarium, the developer behind the blockbuster hero‑collecting title Raid: Shadow Legends. According to Maria Redin, MTG’s president and chief executive, that deal was only the opening move in a much larger playbook.
“We set out the vision last year that after the Plarium acquisition we want to double the company again,” Redin told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’ll keep driving organic growth, but to do that we’ll need to make more acquisitions.” The timeline she cites is bold: MTG aims to achieve the doubling within roughly three to five years.
Redin points out the firm has already proven its ambition. In 2021 the group set a similar target and, as she notes, “we think we tripled.” The mobile market, once a blue‑ocean of double‑digit expansion, has now settled into single‑digit growth as the sector matures. The once‑vast playground has turned “red,” meaning that future expansion will likely involve taking market share from rivals or absorbing them outright. Acquiring studios is the easy part; integrating them is notoriously difficult.
The games industry is littered with cautionary tales of failed integrations that end in studio closures. MTG, however, believes it has a roadmap to avoid those pitfalls. Before buying Plarium, MTG already owned a portfolio of mobile developers: 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 (midcore referring to games that sit between casual and hardcore). The districts have now been rebranded as Playsimple and Playamp respectively.
Playsimple, named after the India‑based studio behind WordTrip, houses free‑to‑play, ad‑supported titles, while Playamp focuses on games that generate revenue primarily through in‑app purchases, the segment that makes up the bulk of MTG’s earnings. Redin says the rebranding is more than cosmetic.
Her goal is to build “one of the leading gaming villages.” The term is meant to evoke a sense of community that employees want to belong to. Retaining talent and fostering a cohesive culture is critical for a company that has been on an acquisition binge. “I always say gaming is the best marriage of creativity and data‑driven decisions,” she explained. “People are our biggest asset, but we also need to create an environment where they can thrive.
When we acquire a studio we want the founders and teams to stay on board because that’s when the real story begins – scaling the business. The only way to make that happen is to give them a workplace they enjoy.” Behind the scenes, MTG has been standardising technology and tools across its portfolio. Redin notes that not every studio needs a bespoke tech stack; the push for common platforms began when she became CEO in 2020, but the scale required to roll it out fully only arrived after the Plarium deal.
She acknowledges the risks, citing Electronic Arts’ fraught attempt to force all its studios onto the Frostbite engine, which caused major headaches for titles like Mass Effect. MTG, however, is treating the two districts differently. Playsimple’s tech foundation will serve future casual acquisitions, while Playamp will adopt selected components of Plarium’s suite on a case‑by‑case basis. “We’ve done a thorough internal assessment of where collaboration on tools makes sense and where it doesn’t,” Redin said.
Plarium’s GoGame marketing platform and its product‑detail‑page (PDP) data system are already being deployed across MTG, with additional features being added to enhance functionality. Redin believes this shared infrastructure will boost studio productivity and deliver “the biggest bang for our buck.” Generative AI is another major focus. 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 observes that AI is becoming embedded in many mobile development pipelines: “We’re all having similar conversations about how to adopt new technology in our production chain. Generative AI is far more powerful than any tool we’ve had before.” The company’s AI strategy is to layer intelligent tools onto existing workflows—A/B testing, graphics creation, quality assurance, and more—while allowing individual studios the freedom to experiment within a shared AI framework.
Successful AI solutions from one studio are then rolled out to the rest of the group, accelerating learning and innovation. When asked whether AI will eventually replace human creators, Redin cautions against that extreme view. “Creativity is still a uniquely human trait,” she says. “If we ignore AI we’ll fall behind competitors.
The goal is to keep our creative talent and augment their work with powerful technology, not to replace them.” Currently, about 80 % of MTG’s revenue comes from the Playamp division, with the remaining 20 % generated by Playsimple. Redin is eager to broaden both sides. “We bought Snowprint a few years ago; finding five more studios like Snowprint would be fantastic.
On the casual side we’d like to add more scale,” she noted. While Playsimple is presently a single studio, Redin hints at the possibility of a third district in the future, likely built around the company’s core marketing and data capabilities. Despite the market’s maturity, the top‑ten mobile games list changes little each year.
Redin emphasizes that MTG’s long‑term thesis has always been to back evergreen IPs. “Raid has many years ahead of it,” she says, “but we still need a pipeline of new titles to keep the engine running.” The challenge of launching fresh hits is underscored by industry commentary.
Ilkka Paananen of Supercell warned that Western mobile publishers are “coasting,” with only two of the 22 billion‑dollar games since 2020 originating from the West. Supercell’s own incubation efforts have struggled; the recent Squad Busters project was shut down after its 2024 launch. Redin acknowledges the difficulty: “It’s hard to make a successful game and scale it,” she admits, noting that Plarium has a new title slated for a soft launch early next year. She believes new games are essential for preserving each studio’s creative DNA and maintaining passion within the group.
Looking at the broader landscape, Redin remains optimistic. The mobile market still serves roughly three billion gamers worldwide, making it a compelling arena despite competition from streaming services and social media. “We won’t see the hyper‑growth of the past,” she concedes, “but low‑single‑digit to mid‑single‑digit growth is realistic.
To exceed that, we must keep investing in strong evergreen IPs while also bringing fresh games to market.”