Prima Games
Encyclopedia
Prima Games, a division of Random House
, is the largest publishing company of video game strategy guide
s in the United States
. It is an imprint
of the Random House Information Group, based in Roseville, California
. They normally feature in-depth walkthroughs to completing the game
and the characters.
it worked directly with the developers themselves in producing the guide.
. The initial contract called for five books - the first ones being Nintendo Games Secrets, Sega Genesis Games Secrets, Turbografx Games Secrets, GameBoy 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 book for Sony and two Earthworm Jim strategy guides.
In 2006, Prima Games undertook an effort to revolutionize the quality of MMORPG strategy guides. Historically those had largely consisted of charts of data, maps and basic instructions. What they were lacking was expert strategy content. Prima engaged 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.
In 2009, Prima Games decided to take the expert strategy concept an additional step. First, they hired The Syndicate its own independent studio working for them 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 their strategy guides on Steam.
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, is the largest publishing company of video game strategy guide
Strategy guide
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in...
s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is an imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
of the Random House Information Group, based in Roseville, California
Roseville, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Roseville had a population of 118,788. The population density was 3,279.4 people per square mile...
. They normally feature in-depth walkthroughs to completing the game
and the characters.
Notable titles
The company has produced over 1,400 titles and boasts over 90 million guides in print. In 2005, Prima introduced electronic distribution of gaming guides. For some guides, like Half-Life 2: Raising the BarHalf-Life 2: Raising the Bar
Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide is a coffee table book published by Prima Games in November 2004, comprising a collection of images chronicling the development of, but not limited to: Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and Half-Life, all of which...
it worked directly with the developers themselves in producing the guide.
Contributors
Writers of strategy guides for Prima Games include- David S.J. Hodgson
- Fernando Bueno
- Stephen Stratton
- Michael Searle
- Catherine Brown
- The Syndicate
History
Prima Publishing was a small publisher working out of a residential-style home office in Roseville, California 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 magazine and on the staff of GameProGamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
. The initial contract called for five books - the first ones being Nintendo Games Secrets, Sega Genesis Games Secrets, Turbografx Games Secrets, GameBoy 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 book for Sony and two Earthworm Jim strategy guides.
In 2006, Prima Games undertook an effort to revolutionize the quality of MMORPG strategy guides. Historically those had largely consisted of charts of data, maps and basic instructions. What they were lacking was expert strategy content. Prima engaged 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.
In 2009, Prima Games decided to take the expert strategy concept an additional step. First, they hired The Syndicate its own independent studio working for them 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 their strategy guides on Steam.