Game publisher Atari and its subsidiary crediting platform MobyGames are launching a new online platform for game industry professionals called Moby Professional. It’s intended to help them seek out new jobs, network with their colleagues, and pursue business development opportunities for their studios.
Moby Professional will be offering free and premium account tiers. The free tier will let developers claim their individual profile and add details to their credits. The premium tier will cost $14.99 per month, with extra features like personalized job listings and recommendations, as well as access to industry tracking data like compensation ranges and information on professional connections at different companies.
The premium tier will be free for all users during Moby Professional’s “beta period,” which is expected to run through the end of summer 2026. That means industry professionals will have free access to the platform’s most attractive features during that time period.
Developers who claim their MobyGames page on either tier will be able to message each other directly, and more “customizable” means of digital connection management will be rolling out during the beta.
The platform is built on what Atari calls “the most complete, structured record of game development credits in existence,” which now documents over 350,000 games and add-ons, 1.3 million individuals, and 50,000 companies. In its announcement, Atari said it’s developed the platform in response to the last few years of industry volatility, which has included a staggering number of layoffs and studio closures.
“Over the past few years game industry professionals have endured significant volatility, including layoffs, studio closures and consolidation, a sharp rise in freelance and contract work, and a job market where even experienced professionals struggle to understand where opportunities exist and how to reach them,” the company stated. “The tools available to the games industry professionals haven’t kept up.”
“Generic professional networks don’t cater to the nuances of working in gaming, and job boards don’t capture the network and personalized intelligence that actually drives how careers move in this industry.”
Speaking to Game Developer via e-mail, Atari product manager Reece Denzel said the platform will do more than “show job openings to users.” “Our systems run known game job postings through a process that automatically surfaces context that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to compile manually,” he said. “This includes overlap with a user’s work history (which can be as granular as relevant game engines, genres, and platforms), connected people and studios, seniority, and location.”
Speaking of context, Denzel dove into a few additional topics in his exchange with Game Developer, stressing that the platform’s unique features make Moby Professional a platform for more than job hunting.
Moby Professional draws on deep data to help devs with their careers
Developers suffering the exhaustive, drawn-out job hunts may flinch at the notion of signing up for a $14.99/month platform just to look through more job postings. Denzel explained that accessibility to Moby Professional is something that Atari has “thought carefully” about, and its structured rollout plan is meant to help developers immediately in need of opportunities.
“The beta is free for at least 45 days, and we think developers will get genuine value from it in that time, particularly those navigating the job market right now,” he said. “Beyond the beta, we’ve also built a meaningful set of free features for all developers that will continue to expand, so there are a variety of ways to leverage Moby to support your work in the industry.”
All of Moby Professional’s additional features are drawn from the aforementioned titanic database of video game credits. Denzel said that the 25 years of data gives the company a “unique map of who made what, in what role, at which studio, and…how everything connects.” Premium users will be able to see a visual representation of that map.
“We didn’t want to just give developers another filterable list. The opportunity we saw was to take that map and make it personal so that when a new game ships, a job opens up, or something is getting coverage, a developer can immediately understand why it’s relevant to them specifically. Credits are the key ingredient in making that system work right out of the box.”
Moby Professional arrives at a tense moment for the game industry, with potential layoffs on the horizon and AI-driven memory shortages potentially blunting sales of video game hardware. While no platform can guarantee a developer a job, hopefully this one will allow industry workers a spite from sifting through the deranged, often AI-written posts that populate LinkedIn.