$re = '/.*?;(.*?);.*/';
$str = '1943;1943: The Battle of Midway (Euro);Final Burn Alpha;;1987;Capcom;Shooter / Flying Vertical;2P sim;270;joystick (8-way);good;1;raster;;;;2';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php