MobyGames Lets Developers Claim Their Credits, But It Will Cost Them

MobyGames, the long-running database that catalogues video games and the people who make them, is rolling out a way for developers to take ownership of their own credit histories. Anyone who has worked on a game listed on the site can now claim their profile and tailor it into a personal portfolio.

The change addresses a long-standing gap in games history. Credits for developers have often been scattered, incomplete or wrong, particularly for older titles where studios rarely published full staff lists. A claimed profile gives the people behind the work a direct say in how their careers are presented.

There is a wrinkle, though. The claiming and customisation tools are only available through a new premium tier, so developers who want to manage their presence will need to pay. MobyGames has not framed it as a free community feature, and that will likely split opinion among the very people it is meant to help.

Supporters will point out that running a database of this size costs money, and a paid tier could help keep the archive sustained. Critics may argue that credits are a matter of basic recognition, and that asking developers to pay to correct or control their own listings feels backwards, especially for freelancers and former staff from defunct studios.

Even so, the move reflects a wider push across the industry to give developers better ways to show what they have shipped. Credits matter for hiring, for portfolios and for simple acknowledgement, and games have historically been inconsistent at providing them.

How many developers sign up will be the real test. If enough do, MobyGames could become a more reliable, developer-verified record of who made what. If the paywall proves too steep, the database may remain a mix of community-submitted entries and unclaimed profiles.