Sony once built a PlayStation 2 directly into a Bravia TV

Sony has made plenty of unusual hardware over the years, but the Bravia KDL-22PX300 still stands out. At first glance, it looks like a fairly ordinary 22-inch LCD television from 2010. Look a little closer, though, and the chunky base starts to make sense. There’s an entire PlayStation 2 inside it. Not an emulator. Not a streaming app. Not a clever case modification. It’s an actual PS2 built into the television.

A proper PlayStation 2 inside the TV

The Bravia tv combines two pieces of Sony hardware that people would normally have bought separately. The screen handles television duties, while the base contains the PlayStation 2 hardware and disc drive.

You could insert a standard PS2 game, connect a controller and play just as you would on a standalone console. The front also includes the familiar controller ports and memory card slots, so Sony didn’t try to reinvent how the PS2 worked. That was probably the right decision.

Anyone who already knew the console could sit down and use it immediately. There wasn’t a strange new interface to learn or a special controller system to deal with.

The disc drive could also play DVDs and audio CDs, which made the machine useful for more than gaming. Back in 2010, that still mattered. Physical discs were a normal part of a living-room setup, and many people used their games consoles as DVD players.

The television was small but well connected

The screen itself wasn’t especially impressive, even for the period. You got a 22-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. In other words, it was HD-ready rather than Full HD. That made it better suited to a bedroom, office or smaller living space than a large main television. The connection options were much more interesting.

Sony fitted the tv with four HDMI inputs, giving owners plenty of room to connect newer equipment alongside the built-in PS2. You could add another console, a set-top box, a media player or other HDMI hardware without constantly swapping cables.

There were analogue connections too, along with USB and Ethernet. The television also supported Sony’s Bravia Internet Video services. Wi-Fi wasn’t built in, but users could add wireless connectivity through a compatible USB adapter. UK versions included a Freeview tuner, so the television could handle normal digital broadcasts without needing another box. For such a small set, that’s a lot of hardware packed into one unit.

The PS2 controls stayed familiar

Sony didn’t hide the console side behind complicated television menus. The PlayStation section included two controller ports and two memory card slots, exactly where you’d expect them. A DualShock 2 controller came with the television as well, so buyers had what they needed to start playing.

Compatible PS2 games could also use network features through the system’s connection options. None of this sounds unusual when you’re describing a normal PlayStation 2. That’s exactly the point. Sony essentially squeezed the familiar console into the bottom of a Bravia television and left the basic PS2 experience alone.

The timing was the strange part

Here’s where the Bravia tv gets more interesting. Sony released it in 2010. By that point, the PlayStation 2 was already about ten years old. The PlayStation 3 had been on sale for several years, and Sony was firmly into a newer console generation. So this wasn’t Sony showing off its latest gaming technology.

Instead, the company took an older but extremely established console and built it into an affordable compact television. In the UK, the set sold for around £199, putting it within reach of buyers looking for a second television rather than an expensive home cinema centrepiece.

The idea makes more sense in that context. A bedroom setup suddenly needed fewer boxes. You didn’t need a separate PS2 sitting under the screen. There were fewer cables to deal with, and you still had enough HDMI inputs for newer equipment. Simple idea. Strange product. Surprisingly practical.

Not a concept, not a custom build

That’s probably the most important thing about this release Sony actually sold it. Products like this can easily look like prototypes or one-off enthusiast projects when they appear online years later. The Bravia wasn’t either of those things. It was a real retail television aimed at European buyers.

And the integration was unusually direct. Modern televisions often talk about gaming through software features, streaming services or low-latency modes. Sony took a much more literal approach here. It put the games console inside the television.

The hardware obviously shows its age now. A 22-inch 1366 by 768 display isn’t going to impress anyone shopping for a current TV, and wired controllers plus removable memory cards belong to a very different period of gaming.

But that’s also what makes the PS2 Bravia interesting from a hardware perspective. It captures a moment when Sony could take one of the world’s most successful consoles, place it inside a compact Bravia television and sell the whole thing as a single consumer product. No streaming account needed. No separate console box. Just insert the disc and play.

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