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Prima Games is a
publishing company Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
of
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
strategy guides Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and video game walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of
Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...
, a division of
Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...
, and produced print strategy guides, featuring in-depth walkthroughs for completing games and other information, such as character sheets and move charts. Prima was acquired by Asteri Holdings in March 2019, which will transition the business to provide
strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...
guides in online form only, alongside other gaming news. The company was acquired by
GAMURS The GAMURS Group, simply known as Gamurs, is an esports media and entertainment publisher. Established in 2014, the group operates multiple brands focusing on the esports and entertainment news markets, including the websites: ''Dot Esports'', '' ...
Group in January 2022.


History

Prima Publishing was a small publisher working out of a residential-style home office in
Roseville, California Roseville is the most populous city in Placer County, California, located within the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of 2019, the United States Census Bureau, US Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 141,500, making it the third-l ...
when in 1990, its owner, Ben Dominitz, contracted with author Rusel DeMaria to create a video game strategy guide imprint, initially called "The Secrets of the Games". At the time, DeMaria was senior editor for ''
PC Games ''PC Games'' is a monthly-released PC gaming magazine published by the Computec Media GmbH in Germany. History ''PC Games'' was founded in 1992 and included a 3½-in floppy disk, which was changed to a CD-ROM in 1995. By 1999 it became the ...
'' magazine and on the staff of ''
GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...
''. The initial contract called for five books—the first ones being ''Nintendo Games Secrets'', ''Sega Genesis Games Secrets'', ''Turbografx Games Secrets'', ''Game Boy Games Secrets'', and ''The Official Lucasfilm Games Air Combat Strategies Book''. Notable titles included ''Myst: The Official Strategy Guide'', which sold in excess of 1.25 million copies in all versions; ''The 7th Guest: The Official Strategy Guide''; ''X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide''; ''TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide''; ''Secret of Mana Game Secrets''; ''Prince of Persia: The Official Strategy Guide''; a special ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'' book for
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
; and two ''
Earthworm Jim ''Earthworm Jim'' is a series of platform games featuring an earthworm named Jim who wears a robotic suit and battles the forces of evil. The series is noted for its platforming and shooting gameplay, surreal humor, and edgy art style. Four game ...
'' strategy guides. DeMaria served as the principal author and creative director of Secrets of the Games between 1990 and 1996. He also was the editor on several books by other authors. In 2005, Prima introduced electronic distribution of gaming guides. In 2006, Prima Games undertook an effort to improve the quality of
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
strategy guides. Historically those had largely consisted of charts of data, maps, and basic instructions. What they were lacking was expert strategy content. Prima worked with the online gaming community known as The Syndicate (www.LLTS.org), who was very large, well known, and well connected with developers. That partnership resulted in a shift in how strategy guides were written. They began to be less of a data dump and more of a deep strategy. Examples of this can be seen in the LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Vanguard, Warhammer Online, and other similar guides from 2006 through 2009. Prima entered a partnership with
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
in 2007, creating several official game guides over the years (such as for ''
Super Mario Galaxy is a 2007 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third 3D platformer game in the ''Super Mario'' series. As Mario, the player embarks on a quest to rescue Princess Peach and save the universe from Bowser, af ...
'', '' Super Mario Galaxy 2'', and '' Super Mario Odyssey''). They contained gameplay tips, walkthroughs, and canon lore. Some of these even featured never-before-seen concept art.Nintendo Power Magazine
(Internet Archive: Wayback Machine)
In 2009, Prima Games decided to take the expert strategy concept an additional step. First, the company hired The Syndicate (its own independent studio) in place of a specific author. The guides would be written from the ground up solely by The Syndicate. They filled the role of writer, author, project management, and editor. Second, the scope of the guides they worked on was expanded from just MMOs to include FPS, RTS, and RPG games. In 2010, Prima started selling its strategy guides on
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
. In 2013, Prima parent company Random House merged with
Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...
, owner of competing strategy guide imprint
BradyGames Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...
, to form Penguin Random House. On June 1, 2015, it was announced that the two imprints would merge and continue to operate solely under the Prima Games brand. Prima has also worked with developers directly to create guides like '' Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar''. Penguin Random House announced in November 2018 that it has decided to close Prima Games by Q2 2019. However, by March 14, 2019, the division was acquired by Asteri Holdings, which will shutter the print operations and instead have Prima provide game strategy guides in online form as well as expanding into gaming news. The renowned eGuides were migrated to a new system and were available at https://eguides.primagames.com, but they were taken down in November 2024 due to the site falling out of use and were no longer updated.


References


External links

* {{authority control American companies established in 1990 Publishing companies established in 1990 Companies based in Shreveport, Louisiana Book publishing companies based in Louisiana Video game journalism 1990 establishments in Louisiana 2019 mergers and acquisitions 2022 mergers and acquisitions