In a Strange Move, Atari Is Set to Acquire Videogame Database
Atari can be attested to be one of the grandfathers of gaming, that’s for sure. It is, after all, going to be celebrating 50 years in the gaming industry on June 27th, 2022. However, some of the things that Atari has done have been a little strange as of late. For example, there has been the Atari hotel and the rumor of being acquired by Soulja Boy.
And now it appears that Atari will be acquiring MobyGames, at the price of 1.5 million. The funny part is, MobyGames isn’t a developer, nor is it a publisher or studio. Instead, MobyGames is a resource for finding out various facts in gaming history. Users can upload anything video game related to the site, including screenshots, new upcoming releases, to older games. It can also give credit to those who have worked on games in the past, and what role they played.
MobyGames, while it has been moderated by volunteers, isn’t a nonprofit database like Wikipedia. It is for profit, which has left all sorts of conflict of interest between users and owners. Because, well, owners of this platform could easily attempt to promote their own games and other materials. Then again, this is not the first, nor the last time that things have gotten hot or heavy for MobyGames. Gamefly Media, when owners of the videogame database in 2013, redesigned the site so that the basic functions were impacted. Thankfully, when BlueFlame Labs bought MobyGames, they brought back the old functionary, and let the resource be what it was supposed to be.
But with Atari planning on taking the database, who knows what may happen. As said before, Atari has made some strange choices as of late, and this may not go so well for people who are simply trying to find or verify certain information about the video game industry.
At least there’s still Wikipedia.