Image: Prima Games
Prima Games, publisher of fine video game strategy guides since 1990, is shutting down. The publisher’s main office will close in November and another office will stay open until March 2019."During a year-long extensive review, many new ways were explored to diversify Prima Games publishing; however, the dynamics for us of this fast-paced landscape have continued to prove difficult. This enormously dedicated team has made every effort to turn the business around, but challenging market conditions have unfortunately worked against them,” Ian Hudson, DK CEO wrote in a memo first reported by Publisher’s Weekly. Prima is an imprint of DK.For almost 30 years, Prima Games gave gamers answers to gaming’s hardest puzzles and mysteries. If you wanted to find all the pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV, track down all the golden skull spiders in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or get tips on killing bosses in Dark Souls, Prima Games had you covered. No longer.When I was a kid, a good strategy guide was often a must. I loved figuring out how to beat bosses and solve mysteries on my own, but knowing I had a reference point to look at if I got frustrated or upset (I was a child after all) was a comfort. The internet changed all that. Why buy an expensive paper guide when I could run to gamefaqs.com and get the answer to my question for free?When everyone from IGN to random YouTubers is making videos about how to find and kill all the legendary animals in Red Dead Redemption 2, there’s little need for a physical guide. In recent years, Prima attempted to draw business with fancy, hardcover special editions of their guides, which often came bundled with online version of the guides. But it wasn’t enough, and now the guides are dead.Goodnight sweet prince. I’ll always remember you.