In March 2022 Atari took ownership of the long‑standing video‑game reference site MobyGames, a move that caught many observers off guard. Up until then Atari had been concentrating its efforts on retro‑gaming projects, yet the acquisition signaled a broader ambition. At the announcement, CEO Wade Rosen praised MobyGames for its essential function in documenting, celebrating, and preserving video‑game history, and hinted that the database would soon receive new capabilities.
Fast forward to the present, and Atari’s vision is beginning to materialize. In June, MobyGames rolled out a premium offering aimed squarely at industry professionals: MobyGames Professional. The service is currently in a beta phase, with a full 1.0 release slated for the autumn season.
Its core promise is to give developers and other creators a way to assert ownership of the credits they earned, to curate a personalized portfolio, and to monitor market‑driven data such as in‑demand skills and salary benchmarks within their discipline. During a Gamescom interview, product manager Reece Denzel told GamesIndustry.biz that the response to the beta has been "great," noting that "thousands of developers" have already claimed their pages on the platform.
Denzel explained that while many industry workers have long had public‑facing profile pages on MobyGames, the new "claim page" button now links a user’s account directly to the public record of their contributions. Importantly, this claim does not grant the user the ability to edit the underlying credit data itself; instead, it allows them to add personal details that are displayed as coming from a verified source. The problem of missing or inaccurate credits is well‑known in the games world. Over the years countless developers have discovered that their names were omitted from the official credit rolls of the titles they helped build.
MobyGames Professional’s claim feature offers a remedy by letting individuals attach their names to projects where they were previously unacknowledged. At the same time, the platform recognises the risk of fraudulent claims, and has instituted a two‑step verification process.
First, a human‑driven identity check confirms that the claimant is indeed who they say they are. Second, the existing credit‑verification workflow—unchanged since Atari’s acquisition—ensures that any modifications to credit information are rigorously vetted. "Our goal is to make the data on the site as accurate as humanly possible," Denzel said. "It may never be a perfect 100 %, but we strive for the highest degree of reliability." When discrepancies arise—such as misspelled names or aliases—the team has established procedures for correction.
Much of the day‑to‑day maintenance of MobyGames’ extensive catalogue is performed by volunteers, a community Denzel describes as "a very active contributor and approver community." These volunteers source credits from a variety of places: screenshots of credit rolls, spreadsheets supplied directly by studios, and other community‑generated material. The result is a symbiotic ecosystem where the community both supplies and validates the information.
Beyond the core credit database, MobyGames offers several ancillary tools. MobyRank, for instance, aggregates page‑view statistics to illustrate the relative popularity of genres, franchises, or individual titles. However, the most groundbreaking addition in the Professional tier is the ability for developers to build a dedicated portfolio page.
Designers can upload demo reels, screenshots, and extended write‑ups of their work, linking each piece directly to the corresponding game credits. They can also embed links to external coverage, personal websites, or any other resource they wish to showcase. This creates a seamless bridge between a verified credit history and a self‑promotional showcase, making it easier for recruiters and peers to assess a developer’s body of work. Denzel illustrated the practical impact with a scenario: an employer discovers that a candidate served as lead designer on a particular game, then instantly accesses that individual’s portfolio and the broader MobyGames record to evaluate other projects they contributed to.
This level of transparency streamlines hiring decisions and reduces the time spent sifting through unverified résumés. MobyGames also maintains a job board that aggregates openings from a wide range of sources. By linking these postings to the studios already catalogued in the database, the platform can cross‑reference job requirements with a user’s verified work history—genre, platform, number of titles, and so forth—to generate personalized job recommendations. The system can highlight former colleagues who once worked at the same studio or who have collaborated on similar projects, facilitating networking and referrals in an industry where personal recommendations carry significant weight.
While the recruitment side of MobyGames Professional has primarily focused on individual users so far, the company is also collaborating with numerous studios behind the scenes. They are testing workflows that allow applicants to submit their MobyGames ID alongside traditional job applications, or even apply for positions directly through the MobyGames interface.
Denzel noted that studios often receive thousands of applications for a single opening, and a verified portfolio can serve as an "immediate differentiator," enabling hiring managers to quickly identify candidates with the right experience. Looking ahead, MobyGames plans to layer analytics on top of its already rich dataset. The first analytical offering will centre on the job market, aggregating information such as salary ranges, geographic distribution of roles, hiring trends, and layoff patterns.
By partnering with select industry players, MobyGames hopes to package this data in a way that is both actionable and accessible. Denzel emphasised that greater transparency around hiring practices, company growth, and even studio closures can empower both workers and observers, fostering a more stable and accountable industry. "Data should be accessible," he asserted. "Preserving information and making it transparent go hand‑in‑hand." By tracking when studios expand their staff, when they downsize, and how those moves correlate with upcoming releases, the platform can illuminate patterns that might otherwise remain hidden.
This visibility, Denzel argues, equips the community to push back against opaque practices and better prepare for future shifts in employment. In sum, Atari’s acquisition of MobyGames has evolved from a surprise purchase into a strategic initiative that blends community‑driven data curation with professional services for developers.
Through verification mechanisms, portfolio tools, job‑matching algorithms, and forthcoming analytics, MobyGames Professional aims to right past oversights, protect against misinformation, and ultimately make the video‑game industry more transparent, accountable, and supportive of the people who create its experiences.