Rambling with… Past N Present Games

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/03/2021 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

My relationship with Past N Present Games goes back several years – my son Carter made sure of that.

So, looking for a place to take my next rambling column, I thought of PNP. And who better to guide my inquiries than Lee Skwarek, the products and promotions manager.

Lee handles social media, advertising, buying; basically, he’s the public face of PNP Games. He has been employed with PNP for over 11 years now and says that he “started as a delivery driver and part-time store employee and worked my way up.”

I will turn it over to Lee to fill in the details of his story:

“I am an avid gamer and one-time collector (with a collection of over 7,000 games at one point).

“While I find less time to play video games day to day I absolutely try to play as often as possible. I like to play a wide variety of games across all genres but my favourites would be role-playing games (RPGs), rhythm games, open world adventures, etc.”

Jade Pearce is the CEO and founder of PNP, which started as a reselling operation for classic games in 2007, but soon evolved, needing an office, warehouse and storefronts. All three store locations are still owned by the original founder, at 915 McLeod Ave. in East Kildonan, another at 2609 Portage Ave., and the third at 160 Meadowood Dr.

The three stores opened in that respective order. Ans Lee so eloquently puts it “2020 sort of tossed a stick in the spokes of a fourth location, but our web store has definitely filled in the gap for the time being.”

When I asked about the changes in demographics, Lee offered this answer:

“Males from 18 to 35 are considered the core demographic for video games, and according to analytics, they are the most active consumers when it comes to commenting on posts, pre-ordering, etc.

“In terms of pure sales numbers in the industry that demographic has begun to absolutely unravel. Everyone is enjoying and purchasing games. Working in and out of our stores and local conventions in the last 10 years I can say first-hand that all walks of life are finding inclusion in video games more and more every year.

“Diversity in games is important, diversity in making games is important if the industry is to continue to grow.”

I also asked Lee about different console preferences and how they’ve changed over the years.
“The console preference breakdown is about what you’d expect,” he said. “Nintendo surged back with the Switch, but the PS4 has a massive user base and head start,  therefore, heading into this new generation.

“Xbox One had a rocky start; absolutely redeemed themselves by the end of the cycle in terms of a user experience… but emerged a much different beast, focusing less on major exclusives and more on building the Netflix of gaming. I’m always fascinated by the industry and it keeps things exciting for everyone involved.”

On that note, game on and ramble on…

Weldon Rinn lives, writes, and enjoys living in St. Vital. He can be reached at weldonrinn2@gmail.com