Sony Once Built a Full PS1 Inside a Controller, Then Cancelled It

Game developer Brian "Biscuit" Watson, who has worked in the industry for four decades, has revealed details of a cancelled Sony project called the PlayStation Puga. He shared the story on the YouTube show "The Retro Collective." The device was a controller that contained an entire PlayStation 1 console inside it. It was built specifically for the Brazilian market because of strict import rules in the country, and was meant to be manufactured locally.

According to Watson, the device came with 4GB of memory, enough to store 10 games. It ran on four AA batteries and connected to a television using an included cable, working like a small handheld-to-TV console.

Watson said the project ran into trouble because of licensing issues. He explained that Sony's licensing team could not agree on royalty terms with game studios, including Rockstar. He added that even Sony's own games needed approval from a separate internal unit, which was also not satisfied with the royalty share being offered.

Since the console-controller was designed to be sold at a low price, the expected earning was only 10 cents per unit sold for each game. Because of this low return, studios were unwilling to bring their games to the device, and Sony eventually cancelled the entire project.

Watson also showed the actual prototype controller during the show. He said it does turn on and reach a debug stub screen, but it cannot fully run because the required software is missing. Watson noted that the device used an Arm-based processor running at 650MHz and could emulate the PlayStation 1 well. It also offered around 20 hours of battery life on a single set of four AA batteries.

He further mentioned that the emulator built for this project was not completely wasted, as it was later used in the Sony Xperia Play phone.

Source: [tomshardware]