Announcing the official release date of its mobile game “Mabinogi Duel,” South Korea’s top online game developer Nexon Korea said Wednesday it would increase its presence in the global mobile game market.

“Mabinogi Duel,” a mobile trading card game, will first be made available in Korean from June 9 but will support six more languages ― English, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Germany and Spanish ― through updates in the latter half of the year.

The game will be compatible with smartphones running on Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS. 


The mobile trading card game is based on the 10-year-old online game “Mabinogi.”

A group of developers at Nexon, called Devcat, which is famous for its PC games “Maple Story” and “Vindictus,” worked on the mobile game for around 18 months.

Nexon Korea has also run a couple of beta tests for “Mabinogi Duel” since last year.

“Users from around 100 nations participated in the beta tests, and Nexon received a lot of positive feedback as well as some constructive complaints,” said Kim Dong-kun, director of Nexon’s subdivision Devcat.

“We will continue updating the game based on the feedback from users.”

It has been pointed out that the Tokyo-headquartered Nexon has lagged competitively in the global mobile game sector, failing to make smartphone game hits.

“Mabinogi Duel” is Nexon’s first mobile game that utilizes the so-called “one-build strategy,” which deploys single marketing and publishing platforms for worldwide services.

The No. 1 online game firm in Korea posted a record quarterly revenue of 479 billion won ($432 million) in the first quarter this year.

With the launch of “Mabinogi Duel” in June, Nexon will pour more resources into fostering its mobile game businesses.

Some 20 mobile games are said to be in development, such as “Hero X Hero” and “Super Fantasy War.”

The game developer also opened the Mabinogi Duel Zone, a venue for mobile game contests, at Nexon Arena in Gangnam, Seoul.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)