From HandWiki - Reading time: 4 min
| Type | Privately held |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles , United States |
Key people | Jacob Andersen, Søren Hannibal |
| Products | AMOK |
| Owner | Jacob Andersen, Søren Hannibal |
Number of employees | 3 |
Lemon was a video game developer founded in 1994 by Søren Hannibal and Jacob Andersen, who had previously been members of a demoscene group of the same name.
Lemon created the voxel-based 3D shooter Amok, for Sega Saturn and PC. A PlayStation version was underway but was ultimately cancelled. Programmer Martin Pollas joined in 1996 to work on the PC version of Amok.
When Lemon's publisher, Scavenger, went bankrupt the team split up. Søren went to work for Shiny Entertainment (creating the Matrix games) while Jacob and Martin joined up with the remaining members of Zyrinx to form Reto-Moto (Hitman series and Freedom Fighters) in 1998.
Before Lemon, Søren and Jacob created the Amiga game Banshee[1] while working at British game developer/publisher Core Design.
Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers". This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months. The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing. A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.
Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information. In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.
In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount. This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign. A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art). Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel, and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.
On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million. The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface. This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.
In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue. Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.
Wikidata has the property:
|
Cite error: <ref> tag with name ":0" defined in <references> is not used in prior text.
Cite error: <ref> tag defined in <references> has no name attribute.
Cite error: <ref> tag with name ":1" defined in <references> is not used in prior text.
Cite error: <ref> tag with name ":2" defined in <references> is not used in prior text.
Cite error: <ref> tag with name ":1" defined in <references> group "" has no content.
Cite error: <ref> tag with name ":2" defined in <references> group "" has no content.
Cite error: <ref> tag with name "gamasutra" defined in <references> is not used in prior text.
<ref> tag with name ":0" defined in <references> group "" has no content.
Warning: Default sort key "Lemon (Developer)" overrides earlier default sort key "Mobygames".