MobyGames

MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs video games both past and present via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300 gaming platforms and over 230,000 games.[3] The site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons.[4]

MobyGames
Logo since March 2014
Screenshot
MobyGames frontpage as of April 2012
Type of site
Gaming
Available inEnglish
OwnerBlue Flame Labs[1]
URLmobygames.com
Alexa rank 24,916 (September 2019)[2]
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional, Free
LaunchedJanuary 30, 1999 (1999-01-30)
Current statusOnline

Overview

MobyGames contains information on video games and the people and companies behind them. Some individual developer profiles have biographical information.

Content is added by members with a non-anonymous user account. Prior to being merged into the database, changes go through a verification process by volunteer "approvers".[5] There is a published standard for game information and copyediting.[6] The most commonly used sources are video game packaging and title and credit screens.

Registered users can rate and review any game. Users can create game "have lists" and "want lists," which may be optionally made public. This can generate a list of games available for trade with other users.

The site has an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own subforum.

History
Logo used until March 11, 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt, and David Berk (who joined 18 months after the project started, but was still credited as a founder), three friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience.

The database began with entries for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows games, since those were the only systems the founders were familiar with. On its second birthday, MobyGames started including contemporary consoles such as the PlayStation, with older systems added later. According to David Berk, new platforms are added once there is enough information researched to design the necessary framework for them in the database, as well as people willing to be approvers for the new platform.

In mid-2010, MobyGames was sold by its founders to GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[7] As this was only announced to the community post factum, a few major contributors left in protest, refusing to do volunteer work for the now-commercially owned website.

On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San-Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[8] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel.[1]

Support for arcade coin-operated games was added in January 2014 and mainframe computer games in June 2017.[9]

References
  1. Wawro, Alex (December 31, 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  2. "Mobygames.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  3. "MobyGames Stats". MobyGames. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  4. "MobyGames Patrons". MobyGames.
  5. "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered ยง When will my submission be approved?". MobyGames.com. Blue Flame Labs. March 30, 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  6. "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". MobyGames.com. Blue Flame Labs. January 6, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  7. "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. July 2, 2011.
  8. Corriea, Alexa Ray. "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  9. "New(ish!) on MobyGames - the Mainframe platform". MobyGames.com. Blue Flame Labs. June 18, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
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