Satellite TV gaming & PS3 price cuts?

DirecTV is readying a nationwide launch of a new gaming service called Game Launch.

The service will deliver games like Sudoku, Poker, Barbie and Hot Wheels.

Game previews will be free and a monthly pass is $5.95. A game pass for selected games is $1.95. To play, you go to Channel 110 on DirecTV. Some boxes already can access the service. If not, you'll get a message saying it's coming soon. You'll use your DirecTV remote to play. But it looks like only the DirecTV branded boxes -- with the white remotes and four color keys on the keypad -- will be able to access the system.

Another way for D* to get your off your TiVo? Maybe.

PS3 Price Drops Coming?

Sony senior vice president Takao Yuhara told the media this week that the company may slash prices on the world's most expensive game machine to help spark sluggish sales.

"We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right,'' Yuhara told reporters at Sony's Tokyo headquarters.

Sony's announcement Tuesday that October-December profit slipped 5 percent to 160 billion yen ($1.3 billion), largely because of PS3 startup costs, sent Sony shares down 1.4 percent in Tokyo on Wednesday. Shares also dropped 32 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $45.98 in midday trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Yuhara said Sony hopes to break even in gaming during the following fiscal year, which ends March 2008.

"Such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in'' the company's break-even plans, he said.