Prima Games Shutting Down

[Deleted]

www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/11/strategy_guide_publisher_prima_games_is_shutting_down_after_28_years

It has been revealed that Prima Games, the largest video game strategy guide publisher in the US, will be closing down after 28 years.

The announcement comes from Prima Games' parent company DK, which has shared its "extremely difficult decision" to no longer commission guides and its intention of discontinuing all Prima Games operations by spring 2019. The decision has been made thanks to a "significant decline" in the physical video game guide sector.

As it stands, Prima Games will no longer be working on any new material, with staff now working on the completion of all projects that have already been commissioned. DK says that it is “now in conversation with all colleagues in Roseville, Indianapolis and New York who have been impacted by this announcement", with the Roseville office set to close as early as mid-November.

Of course, we've seen a lot of physical video game publications having to close down over the last few years - including this month's closures of both GamesTM and GamesMaster magazines - with online publications now taking centre stage. With guide and walkthrough content now available at the click of a button for users - and for free, no less - it's sadly not too hard to see how Prima Games will have struggled to keep up in recent times.

I'm amazed they've lasted this long with how pointless strategy guides are in a world with reliable Internet and smartphones, but very unfortunate for all the people losing their jobs.

[Spider2024]

I mean yeah, I at first felt the need to make some wise crack, perhaps quoting a Krusty The Clown scene from The Simpsons.

Now I wonder, while the making of strategy guides have become obsolete, could they have maybe shifted focus? Prima is/was after all a company very capable of the skill of making books/booklets, about video games, with very detailed information about said games and many beautiful pictures. In theory, Prima would've been good at anthology type books about video games, like the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive or Undisputed Street Fighter: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective. (Then again if video game companies prefer to make such books at a first-party or even a second-party basis, Prima as a third-party would be still left out in the dust.)

[Joe Neglia]

I don't truly get strategy guides in this day and age (unless it's just for the safety of getting the info without having to deal with internet trolls and such), and yet, we still get a crap-ton stolen from their section at my work. I have to keep any Mario, Zelda and most Pokemon guides in a locked case, even the cheap stuff, along a bunch of the more recent adventure game sg's.

That said, it sucks to see that many people lose their jobs, and it sucks to see one more element of my life's near-consistent pieces of pop culture die off.

[H-Virus]

I haven't bought a strategy guide since I discovered Gamefaqs, which I assume is similar for most people.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Sad but inevitable.

I remember having their game guide for Pokemon yellow and FF7.

But in the age when you can go on Google and type "How to defeat the Malboro?" And find it it a minute, I guess it was an inevitable death.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Nov 9, 2018 21:56:07 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

I mean yeah, I at first felt the need to make some wise crack, perhaps quoting a Krusty The Clown scene from The Simpsons.

Now I wonder, while the making of strategy guides have become obsolete, could they have maybe shifted focus? Prima is/was after all a company very capable of the skill of making books/booklets, about video games, with very detailed information about said games and many beautiful pictures. In theory, Prima would've been good at anthology type books about video games, like the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive or Undisputed Street Fighter: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective. (Then again if video game companies prefer to make such books at a first-party or even a second-party basis, Prima as a third-party would be still left out in the dust.)

Yeah, I think they'd have been great at making them. Their guides were well done.

I'd definitely have bought a Prima look back at FF or Prima History of Tekken.

[Deleted]

The last strategy guide i purchased/purchased for me was for Super Mario 64 (i was 12) to detail how to get all 120 stars so yeah a good while ago

[Paul]

I used to buy these guides back in the 90's all the time. If I was a gamer I would still buy these guides because sometimes you want a book to reference instead of having to look something up online.

[Mozenrath]

I haven't bought one in years, but I do fondly recall a strategy guide I had for FF5, 6, 7, and 8 in one thick book.
It's nice to have some physical media. I think that might have been what bit them, though.

Sure, you can look stuff up, but some people like having it in-hand, same as owning physical books instead of digital. But, like with DVDs, people are often looking now to get rid of clutter, and so, a bookshelf stuffed with gaming mags and strategy guides just isn't what a ton of people are interested in having nowadays.

I'm glad that they're finishing their remaining projects instead of just a total shutdown. That's got to be some relief for the staff.

[Bo Rida]

I'll take the printed word over long badly edited videos that take forever to get to the bit you want. Although gamefaqs covers that. Probably. Aside from the souls games I can't remember the last time I needed help, they're just not needed for most modern games.

Or maybe I'm just playing the wrong games.

[CMWaters]

I kind of prefer guides to GameFaqs most times because of the visual aid...but nowadays even that is becoming easier.

*Remembers my first strategy guide being from Nintendo for Super Mario Bros 3.

[Rave]

Sad times. I used to love buying game guides. Think the last one I bought was either Diablo 3 (which was already somewhat outdated by the time I bought it) or the hardcover edition for Ni No Kuni (beautifully put together).

[Deleted]

I actually collect strategy guides, and my closet is filled to the brim with them. I know it's archaic to buy guides nowadays considering you can just get information on the Internet, as everyone says, but I feel like they are of some value, given how hard people worked on them to thoroughly play the games, explore the algorithms, learn tricks, and take advantage of assets given to them by the game developers to make the books all pretty. There are still some groups that'll make guides, but it is rather unfortunate.

The Indianapolis office will remain open for a few more months, and they're the ones who are making the important guides, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Red Dead Redemption 2, so I should probably pay a visit before they close up next year to see how they did everything. I'll likely even have the staff autograph a few books.

[Deleted]

Nov 9, 2018 22:14:34 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

I don't truly get strategy guides in this day and age (unless it's just for the safety of getting the info without having to deal with internet trolls and such), and yet, we still get a crap-ton stolen from their section at my work. I have to keep any Mario, Zelda and most Pokemon guides in a locked case, even the cheap stuff, along a bunch of the more recent adventure game sg's.

That said, it sucks to see that many people lose their jobs, and it sucks to see one more element of my life's near-consistent pieces of pop culture die off.

I can honestly see that being a thing. Strategy guides will become more of a collector's item, even if the game itself wasn't any good.

Where is it you work at?

Though I do have one negative story about strategy guides; when I bought the guide to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it was supposed to come with a giant poster, only that the poster was already out. The guide was sealed up, meaning either someone ripped it out during the process, or they decided at the last minute to cut costs and eliminate the poster.

[A Platypus Rave]

That said I'm sorry to hear people losing their jobs... but I mean Prima's been using something mostly useless since the Internet became a thing... doubly so with the smart phone revolution.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

I honestly thought that they went out business a good 7 or 8 years ago.

[vinnie245]

Honestly suprised they never bothered making all of their old physical guides digital and just have a subscription to them.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

My favorite Prima memory was when I got stuck in Silent Hill 1 in the "other" school. It was early 1999, months before I got the internet for the 1st time, and I don't recall finding anything in PSM (Unofficial) about this particular part.

Essentially, a key gets washed down the drain from the rooftop. I could not for the life of me find where the key went. I thought it got washed down to a sink or the basement or something. I randomly found the Silent Hill Prima guide in a Babbages, and I was so ecstatic because I never saw it before. Sure enough, after following the guide, the key was flushed down a drainage pipe and into the courtyard. I think the reason I never found it even though I did search the courtyard before was because the camera angle was weird and you couldn't see the key without positioning yourself into a specific spot.

Anyway, it was through that that I was able to finish one of my favorite games of all-time. I also learned about the conditions needed to get the Good/Good+/Bad/Bad+ ending, along with the weird UFO goof ending. Years and years later, I was able to port that very childhood save over to PS3 when Silent Hill was released digitally. Pretty cool.

Sad to see it go, but it's just one of the many things that technology evolved away from. There's something really fun about having a friend over for a sleepover and having one guy with the strategy guide in-hand helping the other navigate through the game's more challenging parts. Felt like an adventure or something to see the story unfold together.

[Cyno]

Nov 9, 2018 21:56:07 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

I mean yeah, I at first felt the need to make some wise crack, perhaps quoting a Krusty The Clown scene from The Simpsons.

Now I wonder, while the making of strategy guides have become obsolete, could they have maybe shifted focus? Prima is/was after all a company very capable of the skill of making books/booklets, about video games, with very detailed information about said games and many beautiful pictures. In theory, Prima would've been good at anthology type books about video games, like the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive or Undisputed Street Fighter: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective. (Then again if video game companies prefer to make such books at a first-party or even a second-party basis, Prima as a third-party would be still left out in the dust.)

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but didn't Prima publish that absolutely massive Fire Emblem Awakening artbook here?

I think there's definitely a market for books like the Ultimanias here. The closest thing to an Ultimania we have for FF14, the Encyclopaedia Eorzea, is a really popular book among the players who love lore books. It's popular enough that Square Enix is putting out a second book later this month.

Shame they are going out of business. I enjoy reading a good strategy guide in book form even if they've been made obsolete by the likes of Gamefaqs, Youtube, and the like.

[Deleted]

Nov 10, 2018 19:52:53 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Nov 9, 2018 21:56:07 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

I mean yeah, I at first felt the need to make some wise crack, perhaps quoting a Krusty The Clown scene from The Simpsons.

Now I wonder, while the making of strategy guides have become obsolete, could they have maybe shifted focus? Prima is/was after all a company very capable of the skill of making books/booklets, about video games, with very detailed information about said games and many beautiful pictures. In theory, Prima would've been good at anthology type books about video games, like the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive or Undisputed Street Fighter: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective. (Then again if video game companies prefer to make such books at a first-party or even a second-party basis, Prima as a third-party would be still left out in the dust.)

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but didn't Prima publish that absolutely massive Fire Emblem Awakening artbook here?

I think there's definitely a market for books like the Ultimanias here. The closest thing to an Ultimania we have for FF14, the Encyclopaedia Eorzea, is a really popular book among the players who love lore books. It's popular enough that Square Enix is putting out a second book later this month.

Shame they are going out of business. I enjoy reading a good strategy guide in book form even if they've been made obsolete by the likes of Gamefaqs, Youtube, and the like.

No, that was Dark Horse.