Atari Acquires MobyGames Game Database For $1.5 Million

Game company Atari has acquired MobyGames for $1.5 million. The website is a database for video games, similar to what IMDB is for movies. Mobygames gets more developers for its upcoming, completely new website.

Former owner Jeremiah Freyholtz will remain as site manager, both Mobygames and Atari announced. Freyholtz has been in charge of MobyGames since 2013. In addition, ‘will be invested in full-time development’. Until now, this development was done with part-time workers. The new site has been in the works for a few years and the ’20+ year old codebase and tools’ would be in serious need of replacement.

The two parties are not currently discussing any strategy changes for MobyGames. MobyGames states that Atari “supports us in preserving video game history” and Atari believes it is “important that the site maintains all its integrity” and wants to “improve the user experience on the site for both users and contributors”.

MobyGames is not exactly a new player on the web. The website has been around since 1999 and now contains information about almost 300,000 different games on 302 platforms. In addition to basic data, the site also offers very extensive credits, artwork, alternative titles, user and journalist reviews, trivia and more.