After taking a back seat to consoles for the past few years, personal computers are enjoying a resurgence in gaming, thanks to the popularity of e-sports, customisable machines and faster software releases.

This week’s Tokyo Game Show will feature a main-stage tournament for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a hit online survival PC game that’s been downloaded more than 10 million times since March.

Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One consoles are heading into their fifth years, while Nintendo Co’s Switch is in a bit of a lull before new titles are released for the year-end holiday shopping season.

Spending on gaming-ready PC rigs are on track to climb an average of 6.6% per year through 2020, while the market as a whole is projected to decline 3.8% annually, according to Gartner Inc. Revenue from PC titles will grow by 3% to 4% over the coming years, while console-game sales are seen flat, according to DFC Intelligence.

Written off years ago for being too expensive, complex and bulky for mass appeal, gaming PCs are seeing a resurgence that could even threaten consoles, according to Kazunori Takahashi, Japan gaming head at Nvidia Corp.

“The abundance of titles and the popularity of e-sports is bringing a lot of excitement to PC gaming,” said Takahashi, whose employer supplies graphic chips to PC and console makers. Even in Japan, “it’s not unreasonable to think that PCs can eventually become a presence that threatens console gaming.”

Although consoles have traditionally dominated in Japan, their long development cycles and lead times for new game releases have started to frustrate consumers who want to get their hands on new titles. Consoles also can’t offer superior graphics and cheaper online networks for multiplayer gaming. Valve Corp’s Steam, a popular game downloading site, lets developers release titles for PCs months or years before they’re available on consoles.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, known within the gaming community as PUBG, was released through early-access six months ago. Since then, it has sold more than 10 million copies and achieved a record for the most concurrent players on Steam, beating out well-known titles such as Minecraft, League of Legends or Counter-Strike. That’s even driving gamers to buy PCs just to play PUBG, according to NVIDIA’s Takahashi, a phenomenon that’s more common in the console market.

Sony and Microsoft haven’t ignored the threat, and last year began releasing upgraded versions of their consoles to prevent gamers from migrating to PCs. Consoles are also priced lower than PCs, and have a rich library of exclusive titles that keep customers hooked on their platforms for years. The console market is also much bigger; Sony forecasts that it will ship 18 million PlayStation units in the year through March, and Nintendo is predicting 10 million units for the Switch. By comparison, PC gaming-rig sales will be about 7 million units this year, according to Gartner.

In June, Microsoft announced a deal to release PUBG on Xbox by the end of the year. Sony hasn’t said when a version might be available for the PlayStation 4. Meanwhile, the game’s graphics demands make it unlikely it will appear on Nintendo’s Switch.

Laptops are another reason for the renewed popularity of PC games. With graphics chips getting smaller, along with better cooling systems and battery technology, some laptops now offer performance that can rival desktops, letting PC gamers play outside their home offices and living rooms. Gaming notebook builder Micro-Star International Co has seen revenue from gaming notebooks in Japan doubling every year since 2014, according to Ricky Chang, head of sales and marketing in the country. Shares of the Taipei-based company have more than doubled since 2013.

At the Tokyo Game Show, Japanese publishers, which built their businesses through consoles, are also showing signs of change. Square Enix Holdings Co will unveil new title Left Alive, which it plans to release on PC and PS4 around the same time in 2018. Similarly, Konami Holdings Corp’s Metal Gear Survive will see a PC release at the same time as the PS4 version next year.

The Tokyo Game Show started on Sept 21, and is open to the public Saturday (Sept 23) and Sunday (Sept 24).

“PUBG isn’t even available on consoles, so being able to play it on PC is hugely appealing,” said Satoshi Fujiwara, a 25-year-old Tokyo gamer who grew up playing consoles but recently spent US$2,000 (RM8,395) on a PC gaming rig.

“All the YouTubers and streamers and pro-gamers are using PCs. For those who really want to play competitively, they all end up going to PC.” — Bloomberg

Players of generation-defining creation, construction and exploration game Minecraft can now play with each other regardless of the console, computer or phone they're dialing in from – with a few but notable exceptions.

First emerging in 2009, the explosion of enthusiasm surrounding Minecraft saw it become a phenomenon, at first confined to computers but in 2011 spreading to mobile through iOS and Android editions.

From there, games consoles got in on the act with a 2012 release for Xbox 360 and subsequently for PlayStation and Nintendo platforms.

Since midway through 2016, Microsoft – which bought Minecraft studio Mojang in 2014 for US$2.5bil (RM10.49bil) – has been working on ways to unify the various home and portable editions of the game.

A Windows 10 Edition, released in 2015, encouraged computer users to upgrade from previous versions of Microsoft's operating system and enjoy local multiplayer with iOS, Android and Windows Phone players.

That feature's now been expanded to consoles – specifically, the Xbox One – thanks to the arrival of a Sept 20 update called Better Together.

Using Mojang's proprietary Bedrock Engine, editions of the game capable of cross-platform multiplayer will be known as Minecraft while legacy versions will have relevant suffixes attached: the original Java-based computer game is now Minecraft: Java Edition, while the Wii U edition, which is not getting the update, is still Minecraft: Wii U Edition.

One other bonus of the transition is that progress can be logged on one machine and continued from another.

The update's major caveat is that owners of the Xbox One disc edition have to play five or more hours, or purchase a digital add-on, by Jan 30 2018, in order to receive the digital update.

The whole thing is co-ordinated through Microsoft's online network Xbox Live, and while Nintendo is happy to play ball when it comes to the Switch console's upcoming Better Together update, Sony hasn't been so keen with regards to potential PlayStation 4 action.

While Sony's lack of participation appeared to be to do with legal responsibility for minors – “exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after” an executive said in June – a more profound level of objection is thought to rest on the PlayStation 4's popularity relative to other modern home consoles.

Though Microsoft stopped reporting unit sales of its Xbox One in late 2014, the PlayStation 4 is thought to have outsold its nearest competitor by a ratio of at least 2 to 1.

It's in Sony's interest that players migrate to PlayStation in order to play with friends that are already there, rather than plump for another platform and link up with their Minecraft mates on PlayStation all the same. Why would Sony erode its advantage and encourage existing users to sign up for Xbox Live accounts in one fell swoop?

Evidently the appeal remains for Mojang. “We would love to work with Sony to bring players on PlayStation 4 into this ecosystem as well,” explains the Better Together FAQ. — AFP Relaxnews

Minecraft fans now, in theory, never have to stop playing their favourite game thanks to an update that brings it to a variety of platforms, including Xbox One, Android and Windows 10 computers.

The Better Together Update from developer Mojang not only connects more gamers, allowing them to play together, but it also facilitates new usage scenarios, for example the option to start a game on a console and then move onto a smartphone when you leave the house.

The update also brings new features such as playing time on community servers and automatic synchronisation of updates and content across all devices when you're logged in with an Xbox Live account. — dpa