AC

"War," the song goes, "is not the answer." All apologies to Marvin Gaye, but war is what's going on in video games right now. And perhaps the biggest war game showdown to date kicks off this week with Electronic Arts' release of first-person combat game Battlefield 3, available Tuesday. EA, the No. 2 publisher in the U.S., has Activision's multibillion-dollar Call of Duty franchise in its sights. Deploying Battlefield 3 two weeks before the Nov. 8 arrival of the next Call of Duty installment, Modern Warfare 3, is part of EA's extensive campaign to gain inroads into the $5 billion first-person shooter game market. At stake is leadership in one of the hottest genres for the $60 billion global video game industry. First-person shooters currently account for about 16% of all console video game sales, and that's expected to increase, says Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian. Action games such as the Batman and Uncharted titles make up 22%, followed by 16% for sports games...