Video game database and preservation website for releases, platforms, credits, companies, cover art, screenshots, reviews, identifiers, contributors, and gaming history
MobyGames
MobyGames is a video game database and preservation website that catalogs releases, platforms, credits, companies, people, cover art, screenshots, reviews, genres, identifiers, and other historical game data.
What MobyGames is
MobyGames is a video game database and preservation website. Visit MobyGames to browse game pages, platforms, companies, people, genres, groups, credits, cover art, screenshots, reviews, product identifiers, and other records about electronic games. Its emphasis is historical cataloging rather than storefront shopping or social posting. A MobyGames page tries to describe what a game is, where it appeared, who worked on it, how it was packaged, and how it connects to the wider game industry.
A database for game history
MobyGames describes its goal as cataloging relevant information about computer, console, and arcade games on a game-by-game basis. That includes release data, credits, cover art, player-taken screenshots with captions, neutral descriptions, and more. This gives the site a preservation role. It can document older releases, regional variations, obscure platforms, company histories, and credits that may not be easy to find on modern store pages.
Contributor-vetted records
MobyGames accepts information from registered users, but its About page says submissions are vetted by trusted contributors with proven expertise in video game history. That approval layer is a major part of the site's identity. The result is slower than an open wiki, but more structured. Contributors submit changes, approvers check them against standards, and the database builds a record that aims to be neutral and source-aware.
Credits, companies, and people
One of MobyGames' most important uses is tracking game credits. It connects games to developers, publishers, studios, individual people, companies, and credited roles across many years and platforms. That matters because game credits can be fragmented. A person may work under different names, across multiple studios, or on releases that never had a clean modern web presence. MobyGames helps turn those fragments into navigable career and company histories.
Covers, screenshots, and identifiers
The site also stores visual and bibliographic material such as cover art, promo art, screenshots, videos, product codes, prices, identifiers, critic reviews, player reviews, genres, attributes, and platform data. For collectors, researchers, journalists, and preservationists, these details can be as useful as a review score. They help identify editions, compare ports, trace regional releases, and understand how a game was presented when it was sold.
Rise, ownership, and preservation
MobyGames began in 1999 and has passed through several ownership phases, including GameFly, Jeremiah Freyholtz, and Atari. Those changes matter because a preservation database depends on both community labor and durable stewardship. The site's long life is part of its value. Many game sites from the same era disappeared or shifted focus, while MobyGames remained centered on structured game documentation.
Why it matters
MobyGames matters because video game history is easy to lose. Credits, box art, manuals, release dates, platform differences, company changes, screenshots, and regional editions can vanish when publishers close sites or stores delist games. A contributor-driven database gives that material a more durable home. It helps players, developers, historians, collectors, and writers understand games as artifacts made by people, released in specific contexts, and connected to wider creative and business histories.