MTG unveils Playamp brand for its midcore games

Modern Times Group (MTG) unveiled Playamp, the new brand name for its midcore games, previously dubbed Midcore District.

The previous name wasn’t actually a real brand, as it was a way to describe a group of holdings starting in January. The new actual brand reflects the district’s position as a leading ecosystem for scaling in-app purchase (IAP) driven games, with a distinct identity that attracts and supports talent, games and studios.

Built on the belief that great games are amplified through collaboration, Playamp brings together the international studios and teams within Plarium, InnoGames, Snowprint, Hutch, Ninja Kiwi and Futureplay with shared services teams and tools in areas like marketing, direct-to-consumer (DTC) monetization, advanced AI, and data infrastructure.

Playamp generated revenues of SEK 9,039 million and an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 2,278 million for the full year 2025, contributing to 78% of total group revenues and 86% of adjusted EBITDA.

“MTG’s vision has always been centered on building a Gaming Village with a strong community,” said MTG’s Group President and CEO Maria Redin, in a statement. “A village where game studios can access state-of-the-art shared services and tools to drive growth and longevity in their games, while preserving their unique cultures and identity. I’m excited to unveil Playamp as the ecosystem and community within MTG that delivers on that promise for our IAP-driven studios. Playamp is designed to support both our current studios and those that will join us in the future.”

Oliver Bulloss, head of what was called the Midcore District, noted in a message to GamesBeat that there wasn’t really a brand in place before.

He said the Midcore District and the Casual District was just a way to explain what the districts contained. MTG had just put in place a new brand platform in 2025, and creating a brand for the part of the business where over 80% of the employees (around 1,840 people) are made perfect sense, especially as PlaySimple already was a party of one in the Casual District, and has a very well established brand.

“Midcore can be a fairly subjective word since we have titles in Playamp like Merge Gardens and Matchcreek Motors that provide really compelling and exciting gameplay but are different from something like Raid: Shadow Legends or F1 Clash,” Bulloss said. “They can both live in Playamp happily though. We didn’t want to get hung up on the debate around what is and isn’t a Midcore game/studio.”

He added, “PlaySimple is the only studio in the Casual District, but for Playamp, we were doing a very transformative thing. It made sense to create a brand that people, and especially the teams in the shared services and platform part of the organization could unify around in their work to support their studios.”

Overall, MTG has about 2,300 people. Looking to the future, Bulloss said, “Playamp brings to life the vision of a set of bold studios and world class shared services that are able to do more than they could on their own. With increased sharing and collaboration we will be able to amplify successes from one team across all 1,800+ people. Our scale also means we will be taking advantage of the best tools, tech and talent from across all of Playamp to maximize the success of new and existing live titles while also giving new games a head start.”

He added, “Across Playamp we’re also aligning some key parts of the tech stack like marketing tools, data platforms, and cybersecurity.”

MTG’s Gaming Village currently consists of two districts: Playamp, focused on IAP-driven games, and Playsimple, focused on in-app advertising driven games. Playsimple is the global leader in casual word games (by downloads), with an expanding portfolio, and a proprietary AI-enabled platform for profitably scaling and growing in-app advertising driven games.

Together they reflect MTG’s strategy of building specialized ecosystems that help studios accelerate growth while preserving their creative independence. MTG’s ambition is to enable every studio and team within the group to benefit from the vast amounts of experience and expertise within the Gaming Village.

Playamp’s world-class shared services and platforms include:

· GoGame marketing platform: Proprietary user acquisition and marketing platform enabling high-performance, data-driven player acquisition and lifecycle marketing across Playamp, leveraging centralized technology, audience insights, and optimization capabilities to improve marketing efficiency and scale.

· Plarium Data Platform (PDP): Shared analytics and data infrastructure providing cross-studio benchmarking, standardized reporting, and unified key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable faster decision-making, operational alignment, and the dissemination of best practices across all studios.

· Direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform: Integrated ecosystem encompassing Plarium Play launcher, proprietary webstores, user-choice billing, and alternative distribution channels, designed to expand revenue opportunities beyond app stores while strengthening direct relationships with players. DTC channels accounted for 51% of Playamp’s total revenue in the second quarter of 2026.

· AI Lab: Playamp’s AI R&D engine helps explore new AI opportunities, validate use cases, and build reusable AI infrastructure that accelerates every aspect of Playamp, from game development velocity to service team efficiency across all aspects of the business.

· Platform Relations: Coordination with Apple, Google, and alternative app stores to drive incremental installs, revenue, and platform opportunity for all studios.

· Player Services: Central community management, player support, audio production, localization, content services, and more to elevate experiences at scale with cost efficiency.

Playamp CEO Oliver Bulloss said in a statement, “The brand Playamp, quite literally, embodies our promise to amplify great games. ‘Play’ is our studios. ‘Amp’ is the shared expertise, technology, and services that help them scale. Together, they create an ecosystem where studios retain the creative freedom to build fresh, exciting experiences while benefiting from one of the most comprehensive mobile gaming ecosystems on the market.”

Bulloss added, “Today, Playamp’s shared services teams support over 60 games in key areas like marketing, AI integration, and data analytics. This is only the beginning, and I am excited to continue evolving Playamp together with our teams.”

Playamp and Playsimple will replace the Midcore and Casual District names in MTG’s financial reporting from the third quarter of 2026.

MTG’s HQ can be found in Sweden, but the group has an international culture and a global footprint. MTG’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the tickers MTGA and MTGB.

Part of MTG’s Gaming Village, Playamp brings together Plarium, InnoGames, Snowprint, Hutch, Ninja Kiwi, and Futureplay with world class services that help successful games scale faster. Its studios create and operate globally successful evergreen titles including RAID: Shadow Legends, Forge of Empires, Warhammer 40,000: Tacitus, F1 Clash, Bloons TD 6 and Merge Gardens.

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