Walk into the main hall at the Staples Center and you were sucked into the belly of Electronic Arts Inc.'s death-star, a circular high-definition screen.

Walk into the main hall at the Staples Center and you were sucked into the belly of Electronic Arts Inc.'s death-star, a circular high-definition screen. The blaring 360-degree display inspired shock and awe--last year. Reprising the same booth, in the same location, two years in a row still wowed first-timers--but some of the magic was lost.

Santa Monica-based Activision Inc. upstaged EA, securing 12,000 feet of booth space right next door. It included a working vert-ramp--a skateboarding half-pipe so that skateboard and video game icon Tony Hawk could do a few tricks.

EA's booth disgorged people into "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars," Activision's latest PC game. Fifty large flat-screen video displays dropped down from all sides. There were enough game displays for 16 people to play against each other. Though EA is the industry giant, with $3.1 billion in revenues last year, Activision is declaring it a competition with $1.4 billion in revenues.

The new spot offered maximum exposure and wow-factor.

"It's about acting like a leader in the industry," said Robin Kaminski, head of global brands management for Activision. "It's not about wondering, "what's EA going to do this year?'"

Activision was showing three titles for the new PlayStation 3 and the new Nintendo Wii console, four Xbox 360 titles, five Playstation Portable tides, and five Nintendo DS handheld games.

"Success in this cycle depends on games that make the hardware fun," she said. "It's not about the pretty girls on a stage, it's not about fire dancers--it's about the game."