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Strategy guide specialists Prima Games is closing down.
EGM Now (via GamesIndustry.biz) reports the closure affects employees across three Prima offices – New York, Indianapolis, and Roseville, California. While the latter is expected to close as early as this month, the other studios will purportedly retain enough staff until Q2 2019 to complete outstanding projects.
As yet, the full number of people affected by the closure remains unsubstantiated. While a Prima representative confirmed the company would not be commissioning new strategy guides and would by discontinuing by spring/Q2 next year, they would not be drawn on the number of layoffs, saying only that management was "in conversations with the Prima Games team and cannot comment on this further at this point".
Founded in 1990 and now part of Penguin Random House, Prima is a leading publisher of strategy guides under the Dorling Kindersley (DK) division, which reportedly confirmed the closure as an "extremely difficult decision". It acquired key competitor, Brady Games, in 2015.
Founded in 1990, Prima Games, an imprint of Dorling Kindersley (DK) and a division of Penguin Random House Inc., describes itself as "the world’s leading publisher of strategy content for PC and console video games". It acquired key competitor, Brady Games, in 2015. DK reportedly confirmed the closure as an "extremely difficult decision".
It’s another blow for the game’s print industry after MCV’s parent company Future plc recently announced the closure of GamesMaster and games™ magazines. "Despite the company’s strong performance overall, unfortunately games™ and GamesMaster are no longer profitable parts of the business, which means that their next issues, on sale November 1st, will be the final editions," Tony Mott, brand director of games, said at the time.
Like Prima, the magazines had long and storied histories. GamesMaster dates back to 1993, while games™ has been running since 2002, and is a month short of its sixteenth birthday. Their closure leaves Future’s Edge magazine as the last, long-running proponent in the multi-format games space.
