Quoted from Purpledrilmonkey:Same reason video game companies don't usually hand out walk thrus for their brand new games; it's typically up to third parties and individuals to do that.
you're talking about the home market here vs. the arcade games of the 80's
I used to author strategy guides for brady and prima and there's huge money in both the sales (from the book publisher side) and licensing (from the game publisher side) of official guide books. even with the internet, a lot of hardcore gamers will purchase the strategy guides on "day one" at the same time that they buy a game, just so they can cruise through the game (and then get onto the next), or have all of the maps handy to have a better advantage in multiplayer titles than their opposition for the first week or so.
let's go back to the 70's/80's and look at [arcade] video games and pinball machines. even though the rules weren't as deep as they are today, as TimeBandit mentioned, most of the coin drop was earned by arcades & bars by players paying to play and "learn" the rules, patterns and risk/rewards of the machine.
yes, a few companies put out small booklets for some of the AAA video games (pac-man, donkey kong, defender, etc...) but given the lack of the social media network and internet access that we have today, the ownage was on the player and their small band of friends sharing the "secrets" that they uncovered.
and although pinball has a larger audience and target ownership today than bars, restaurants and the occasional arcade, they are still, by in large, commercial machines which are sold to make money for their operators. money which is made by repeated plays by players learning the rules to conquer the machine and/or achieve the high score.
