In an age where YouTube and Twitch content creators exist, physical strategy guides have continued to struggle in recent years and as of now, it seems the last one around is officially shutting their doors in the upcoming months.
Founded in 1990, Prima Games was among some of the words leading strategy guide publishers since their founding by parent company DK. In their statement, DK revealed that they had fallen victim to a significant loss in sales in recent years. Companies such as GameFaqs (owned by GameSpot) and IGN have become a significant source for strategy guides that have become sources that gamers have begun to depend upon in recent years.
As the internal struggles at BradyGames came to light and Prima Games had purchased them, the former strategy guide publisher seemed to be doing great. However, even with consistently released guides in both physical and digital formats, Prima Games would struggle to survive over the course of the years and called what had happened “a significant decline” in the world of physical guides.
Unfortunately, with the way games have changed in recent years, physical strategy guides struggle to keep up with the release of DLC, updates and added features over the span of a video games life. Sadly, it makes it so that digital guides are easier to access on forums through Reddit, posts on GameFaqs or IGN’s site.
For those who prefer to have a physical one or two may want to take this time until the companies operations fully cease to exist by early 2019. The company has revealed that they are no longer printing new guides or working on content creation for digital ones either.
For what it’s worth, it was a solid 28 years of guides that fans can collect and use. At least my guide for Assassin’s Creed will remain by my side for years to come.
About the Writer(s):
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.