Prima Games To Publish Official Strategy Guides For Namco’s Tekken®4 And Dead To Rights™ Video Games

ROSEVILLE, Calif., August 5, 2002 – Prima Games, a division of Random House Inc. and the world’s leading strategy guide publisher, today announced that it has signed an exclusive agreement with Namco to write, publish and distribute strategy guides for Tekken 4 for PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and Dead to Rights™ for the Xbox gaming system in North America.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Tekken 4 and Dead to Rights are two of Namco’s premier releases this year,” said Stacey Hirata, director of marketing for Namco Hometek.  “We chose Prima Games as our strategy guide partner not only because they are the industry leader, but also due to the high level of enthusiasm the team conveyed for our games.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Namco to bring strategy guides to market for two critically acclaimed console games,” said Debra Kempker, president of Prima Games.  “Both Tekken 4 and Dead to Rights were nominated by various video game trade publications for ‘Best of Show’ awards at E3, so we are expecting that the guides will be in high demand as the titles launch later this year.”   

Within the past three months, Prima Games has also signed strategy guide publishing deals with Electronic Arts, Infogrames and Ubi Soft Entertainment, further cementing the company’s dominance of the strategy guide market.  According to NPDFunworld, Prima Games owns a 45 percent market share, a ranking it has held since 1999.            

Strategy guides are soft cover books that provide helpful hints and tips to consumers on how to play a specific computer or video game.  The cost for Prima Games’ guides range from U.S. MSRP $14.99 to $19.99.

 About Namco
Namco has been engaged in the amusement business for more than 45 years and is a world leader in the R&D, production and sales of home video games software, coin-operated game machines, and amusement facility operations.

About Prima Games
Prima Games, a division of Random House Inc., is the world's leading publisher of strategy guides for computer and console video games, with more than 900 titles published and over 50 million guides in print.  High quality strategy guides, extensive retail distribution and relationships with top game developers and publishers have allowed Prima Games to claim the highest market share among strategy guide publishers.  More information can be found on the Web at www.primagames.com.

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