Strategy guide publisher Prima Games will be no more after Spring 2019 according to multiple reports from Variety and EGM Now.
Parent company Dorling Kindersley announced the closure, which will see offices in Roseville, Indianapolis, and New York shutterring. Roseville will be closing very soon, in mid-November, Indianapolis will have a small selection of staff stay on until March 2019, and the New York office’s fate is currently unknown.
Prima Games got its start in 1990 and ran for 28 years printing millions of strategy guides for thousands of video games. Their main competitor, BradyGames, was merged with Prima in 2013 after parent company Penguin Group merged with Random House to create Penguin Random House. Prima also put out art books and hardcover versions of guides. With this announcement Game Stop employees will no longer need to ask about whether or not you want to buy the strategy guide on top of pre-orders and other promotions.
“I can confirm that the decision has been made to no longer commission new Prima Games strategy guides and the U.S.-based imprint will be discontinued in Spring 2019,” a spokesperson said via email. “We are in conversations with the Prima Games team and cannot comment on this further at this point.” [Variety]
Due to the emergence of YouTube, GameFAQs, and the internet in general, print versions of strategy guides that required purchase became nearly obsolete in the face of community made wikis. The only strategy guides I ever owned were for Pokemon Crystal, both Kindgom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, and the original Star Wars: Battlefront. We have reached out to Prima Games for comment and will update if and when we hear back.