As a hardware publisher, Sony has secretly developed many “prototype” products over the years that never made it to market, and recently, another little-known development project was unexpectedly revealed. Senior game developer Brian Watson recently publicly showcased a mysterious prototype called “PlayStation Pulga.” From the outside, this product looks no different from a standard PS1 original DualShock controller, but actually, this controller itself has a built-in PS1 emulator, so you can connect it directly to a TV and play games.
According to footage of a presentation shared by the YouTube channel Retro Collective on July 2, 2026, veteran developer Brian Watson—who has spent a full 40 years in the gaming industry and developed the PS2 emulator for Sony’s PS3, worked on PS VR, and contributed to the massive multiplayer online shooter MAG—shared many details about his career while also showcasing a product called “PlayStation Pulga.”
At the end of his speech, Brian Watson suddenly pulled out what appeared to be an ordinary original DualShock controller and told the audience that this controller itself was actually a playable “PlayStation” console. According to him, this development project was codenamed “Pulga,” which means “flea” in Portuguese, symbolizing its compact design.
PlayStation Pulga’s biggest feature is that it can become a “plug-and-play” device. Players only need to plug the controller into the TV to play the built-in PS1 games, completely abandoning the console and disc design. As for the hardware, Pulga is equipped with 4GB of storage space, which can hold about 10 PS1 games, and uses the TI OMAP 3530 processor platform paired with an ARM processor running at approximately 650MHz. Not only that, this device is battery-powered, eliminating the need for an additional power cord, and offers a battery life of up to about 20 hours.
Unfortunately, Brian Watson says the PlayStation Pulga prototype he has no longer works properly, and even if it does power on, the device only displays the debug screen. The emulator software used for testing back then has also been lost, so there’s no way to reproduce its full functionality.
In addition, Brian Watson also confirmed that PlayStation Pulga was actually a product Sony planned to create specifically for Brazil. According to his explanation, Sony was restricted by strict import regulations in Brazil at the time, which caused PlayStation console prices locally to become too high, even becoming a black market commodity. To address this, Sony hoped to produce Pulga directly in Brazil to avoid high import tariffs and related restrictions, delivering PlayStation to local players at a lower cost.
However, PlayStation Pulga still caused Sony various problems, such as being unable to reach consensus with game rights holders, and the royalties demanded by all parties were excessively high, ultimately leading to the development plan losing its commercial viability. Although Brian Watson did not explicitly reveal what titles the console was originally planned to include, he hinted that it would feature some Rockstar Games titles as well as games from Sony’s own lineup.
Since they were never able to secure licensing for these games, Sony ultimately decided to cancel the PlayStation Pulga development project, making this “controller-as-console” prototype another stillborn project in PlayStation history.
Source: KOCPC Chinese