This is not new functionality at 10.2. At the beginning of the tutorial, it states the following:
The steps in this tutorial assume that you have an available ArcGIS Server that has an enterprise geodatabase registered as its managed geodatabase. See more information about a managed geodatabase here.
If the service type you want to publish requires an enterprise geodatabase, you must first create an enterprise geodatabase and register it as ArcGIS Server's Managed Database. When you publish, the data referenced by your GIS resource will be copied into this enterprise geodatabase.