Sony's long-awaited PS3 will finally get its official launch here on March 23rd.

At $1199 it is a big-ticket item so Sony is sweetening the deal for the first 4000 Kiwis to sign up to the new online Playstation Network by offering them a free copy of box office Bond hit Casino Royale on Blu-ray disc. With a 25GB capacity, Blu-ray discs are able to offer a much-enhanced audio-visual and interactive experience.

Playstation Network is a new online environment offering PS3 owners downloadable games, game demos, game expansions and movie trailers. At launch, Gran Turismo HD Concept ( a sample game to show off the HD graphic capabilities of the PS3) will be free to download for anyone registering on the Network.

Downloadable games are a new feature of the Playstation experience with the idea being to offer smaller, snack-sized game alternatives to the full-sized disc-based games.