Mabinogi (video game)

Mabinogi (Korean: 마비노기) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by Nexon, and developed by devCAT studio. The name of the game is taken from the Welsh word Mabinogi, a Welsh anthology of legend, and the settings for the game are loosely based on Irish mythology.

The game features hand-painted textures stylized with edge detection outlining. The game world is developed continuously, through the release of important updates (referred to as "Generations" and "Seasons") that introduce new areas, additional features such as pets and new skills, and advancement of the storyline. The user interface is simple and designed in the likeness of Microsoft Windows' task bar.

Mabinogi was built on a hybrid Value Added Services model (which varies slightly for each game localization) that allows free play and the subscription of paid packages, purchased through the game shop. In South Korea, beginning with the Chapter 3 patch, Mabinogi changed to micro-transactions. It allows 24-hour free play and the Item Shop only offers items and subscriptions for added options.

The game service is available in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, North America, Oceania, and Israel.

The North American closed beta test began on January 30, 2008. The pre-open beta only available to Fileplanet users was released on March 5. The full open beta was released on March 6 and the North American localization of Mabinogi was released on March 27.

During the 2007 Gstar game show in Seoul, South Korea, Nexon announced an Xbox 360 version of Mabinogi, but the release of the console version has been indefinitely suspended after evaluations of the game through their business decisions. On June 17th, 2023 Nexon announced a large overhaul and planned modernization of Mabinogi that involves upgrading the game engine to Unreal Engine 5.