So, if you go check out the MobyGames database stats page, you'll see that we reached an important milestone - 300,000 games documented in the MobyGames database!

Congrats to everyone who helped us get there - and with a good deal of accuracy and checking along the way! (Also, in the comments for this post, maybe people can point out other neat user milestones achieved recently!)

This is an update to the 200,000 game announcement which happened in May of 2019.

I’m pleased to announce that Atari is now supporting our mission to preserve video game history. They have completed acquisition of the site from Antstream. You can read the official press release here.

Since 2013 I’ve been running MobyGames and will continue doing so. Atari understands how important our project is for the gaming community and they’re well aligned with our plans to improve the database and tools. In fact, Atari’s new CEO is a retro gamer/collector and long time fan of the site!

We will now be investing in full-time development (we’ve been operating with part-time dev) to complete the new site that’s been in the works the past few years. Which will replace our 20+ year old codebase and tools. It’s currently in beta testing with our admins and approvers. We’ll be expanding the beta as development gets ramped up. Stay tuned!

As per tradition, I present to you the database visualization! Made possible by the MobyGames API.

Previous editions:
January 2021 - January 2020 - January 2019 - January 2018 - June 2017 - January 2017 - January 2016 - January 2015 - January 2014 - January 2013 - January 2012 - January 2011 - January 2010 - January 2009



(Click to enlarge)

An explanation: each coloured shape in the graph represents a platform. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis represents the number of games released and is stacked. So the height of a shape on a given point in time indicates the number of games released for that platform that year. The total height of the graph on a given point in time shows the total releases that year. The graph is meant to represent game releases and thus excludes DLC, Special Edition and Compilation items. It does include each game for each platform it was released on.
As usual we see a drop-off at the end, simply because we haven't been able to keep up with all the new game releases.
Feel free to point out interesting info in the graph and your contributions in the thread!

I have also updated the bar chart race I made last year with the new data. (if you recently opened the old one you might have to hold ALT while you refresh your browser page so you don't get served a cached version. The chart animation should end in 2021)

[All data taken from MobyGames. Of course, the graph is only as complete as our database is. Come help us if you can!]

Happy new year! As usual, it's time to ask once again: what are your personal goals for 2022, MobyGames or gaming in general related? Here's our resolutions from last year. What about this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Another year, another traditional thread. At the end of 2021, let us reminisce on all the games we've played over the past 365 days and share our impressions.

As always, the games themselves need not have come out in 2021 necessarily, all that matters is that you played them and they left a mark on you.

As per tradition, I present to you the database visualization! Made possible by the MobyGames API.

Previous editions:
January 2020 - January 2019 - January 2018 - June 2017 - January 2017 - January 2016 - January 2015 - January 2014 - January 2013 - January 2012 - January 2011 - January 2010 - January 2009



(Click to enlarge)

An explanation: each coloured shape in the graph represents a platform. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis represents the number of games released. So the height of a shape on a given point in time indicates the number of games released for that platform that year. The total height of the graph on a given point in time shows the total releases that year. The graph is meant to represent game releases and thus excludes DLC, Special Edition and Compilation items. It does include each game for each platform it was released on.
As usual we see a drop-off at the end, simply because we haven't been able to keep up with all the new game releases.
Feel free to point out interesting info in the graph and your contributions in the thread!


[All data taken from MobyGames. Of course, the graph is only as complete as our database is. Come help us if you can!]

Happy new year and new decade! It's time to ask once again: what are your personal goals for 2021, MobyGames or gaming in general related? I guess nobody expected last year to be as crazy as it was, so here's our resolutions from last year. What about this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Special thanks to Kayburt for making quick work of the V.Flash goal! We now all of its games listed, though still in need of credits, covers and screenshots to fill them out.

Next up, a big goal to reach 5,000 browser games. With an emphasis on games made in flash, as Adobe is deprecating that on December 31st. After that it'll be more difficult to document flash games as 3rd party plugins will need to be installed, and flash portals are more likely to shut down.

Recommended sources: Kongregate, Armor Games, Not Doppler. Newgrounds is also good, though they have their own plugin and less likely to disappear.

Thanks in advance to all contributors, and let's see how quickly we can get to 5k!

Thanks to everyone who helped reach our goal of documenting 2,800 Arcade games! That was a big one. Whew.

And with that we're kicking off a new goal. A much smaller one, for a platform called V.Flash - an educational video game console that only had 10 games released. So the goal is to get the platform to 100% completion.

A new metric has been added to credit listings so you can get an exact count of how many people were credited on any particular release!

There are some fun and interesting ways to use this. For example, you can see how credits have grown between sequels:

Grand Theft Auto = 86 developers

Grand Theft Auto II = 158 developers

Grand Theft Auto III = 185 developers

Grand Theft Auto IV = 1,337 developers

Grand Theft Auto V = 3,692 developers

Note: In cases where credits include thanks, the numbers are shown separately. This is a useful distinction, especially for games that have backers which can easily exceed the number of developers. e.g., FTL: Faster Than Light has 1,053 credits, 1,046 of which are backers/thanks.

Some updates to kick off 2020!

First, special thanks to MobyGames contributor hoeksmas, who added hundreds of lesser known Apple II games and screenshots to the database! Helping make MobyGames the most accurate and complete collection of games published for the Apple II.

Now onto site updates:

• Optimized API queries (approx. 15x faster!)
• Behind the scenes infrastructure work for the API (moving to a new system soon that's easier to scale and develop)
• Improved page responsiveness for smaller screens (mobile)
• SEO tweaks to hopefully help improve our results on Google (if you're an SEO wizard and have any suggestions, please contact me)
• Changed credits display on combined game pages to show credits for the first release (was showing info from the first platform, alphabetically)
• Removed critic/user score overview section from game pages (discussion)
• Fixed combined game pages that were displaying the first alphabetical platform and release date in the page title
• Fixed issue with forms getting improperly cached

As per tradition, I present to you the database visualization! Made possible by the MobyGames API.

Previous editions:
January 2019 - January 2018 - June 2017 - January 2017 - January 2016 - January 2015 - January 2014 - January 2013 - January 2012 - January 2011 - January 2010 - January 2009



(Click to enlarge)

An explanation: each coloured shape in the graph represents a platform. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis represents the number of games released. So the height of a shape on a given point in time indicates the number of games released for that platform that year. The total height of the graph on a given point in time shows the total releases that year. The graph is meant to represent game releases and thus excludes DLC, Special Edition and Compilation items. It does include each game for each platform it was released on.

Notable changes since last year:
- Where last year I had to switch to LibreOffice to make the graph due to limitations in Excel, I hit some more since. I decided to write my own code to draw the graphs and nicely colour everything. Makes it look better too with some nicer anti-aliasing.
- As usual we see a drop-off at the end, simply because we haven't been able to keep up with all the new game releases.
- Feel free to point out other interesting info in the graph!


[All data taken from MobyGames. Of course, the graph is only as complete as our database is. Come help us if you can!]