Published , by Kevin Tucker
Published , by Kevin Tucker
Sad news is circling the internet detailing the closure of one of gaming media's most storied strategy guide publishers. After 28 years in operation, it appears that Prima Games is shutting down, with two of the publisher's three main offices closing its doors within the next five months.
According to reports from EGM Now and GamesIndustry.biz, Penguin Random House has announced the "extremely difficult decision" to close down the United States offices of Prima Games, effective in 2019. Details seem to indicate that an untold number of employees will be affected by the closure.
As it stands now, the Roseville office will be closed as of this November. The Indianapolis office is expected to stay operational all the way through March. We don't yet have concrete details on what will happen at the New York office, though it too is expected to close down sometime around the spring of 2019.
This is certainly disheartening news not only for the company's employees and stockholders, but also for fans of print-based strategy guides. Prima Games has been a name in the industry since 1990, and after a long and storied rivalry with BradyGames, as well as a Penguin Random House merger in 2013, eventually came to be known as the de-facto brand of video game strategy guides.
A 2019 closure will mean the company was able to keep operations running for a full 28 years, creating something to the effect of 1,400 different strategy guides across five distinct console generations.