Prior to the November 26-scheduled public launch of the PlayTV in Australia, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCEA) has recently launched the device officially to the media.

Furthermore, the SCEA Managing Director Michael Ephraim said that, to coincide with the Thursday availability of the PlayTV in the Australian stores, the company “will be bundling the Playstation3 250GB models with PlayTV for free.”

Ephraim added: “Coming in at just $599.95 the PS3 is now the best value proposition on the market, especially due to the fact that we are now throwing in PlayTV which is worth $169.95.”

The PlayTV system is the first game console system in Australia which can receive free-to-air digital TV. The device metamorphoses the PS3 game console into a high-definition DVR, which enables users to watch Internet-delivered TV services on their TV set, and convert the PlayStation Portable into a mini TV.

Noting that nearly 675,000 PS3s have been sold in Australia thus far this year, Ephraim said that the company projects a sale of nearly 150,000 PlayTVs by Christmas, assuming that almost 10 percent of existing PS3 owners will upgrade to PlayTV.

With the PlayTV’s Thursday launch, the competition in internet protocol TV (IPTV) market will flare up – what with Foxtel having already launched a similar service earlier this year; and TiVo likely to unveil its on-demand TV service later this week!