This brings us to that pesky PSX abbreviation, which Sony apparently feels must now get a proper home. This new digital domicile, according to our friends over at the official UK PlayStation site appears to have the guts of a PS2, a DVD+/-R and RW burner, USB 2.0, Memory Stick support, a 120GB hard drive, PS2 Online Network support, TV tuner and TiVo-like TV-on-demand services. Put simply, the thing plays PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games (including online via broadband with existing PS2 and in some cases PC gamers), DVDs and CDs, can pause, rewind and record live TV, burns CDs and DVDs, can instantly read images from Sony digital cameras and will likely play them back in slideshow format without any real prompts upon inserting a Memory Stick, and will basically replace and or condense all living room appliances into one incredibly sexy little package.

That’s what the PSX is. Here’s what it is not. It’s not the PlayStation 3 -- that’s still very much underway, and by all estimates will probably hit sometime in 2005. It’s not a new console -- the PSX is at its heart a PlayStation 2 with beefed up home entertainment guts, and offers nothing hardware-wise for gamers that the PS2 can’t also supply. It’s also not the end of the PlayStation 2 in any way – with the PSX’s higher-end goodies, the system will likely cost a whole lot more than the games-only goodness of the PS2, and Sony won’t be making gamers fork over more than the PS2’s current price of $180 (or $200 when the updated PS2 hits with the built-in Network Adaptor, anyway).

The design of the system, in typical Sony fashion, is just about dead sexy enough to force you to buy it – even if you don’t know what it does. Something about Sony’s recent stab at aesthetic understatement leaves the system at once utterly simple and clean-lined, and yet still somehow oozing with charm and that oh-so hip vibe that’s done so well for the company’s design department so far. Most of the system’s ports are on the back (or on the top if you’re standing the system vertically; no telling so far how the various cables and other signal-carrying umbilicals will stay as elegantly hidden when standing upright), with a couple key exceptions. While no photos of the system have shown the exact contents, there is a panel on the front that normally lies hidden. This is likely where the PS2 controller, memory card and USB ports are. It’s a very clever way of keeping the whole system minimalist when things aren’t plugged into it.

On the back, you can see inputs and outputs for the system’s power, optical out, Ethernet (read: broadband) port, VGA connector, composite and S-Video in and outputs, coax (read: cable) in and out and what appears to be Memory Stick slots. It’s unclear right now what role the hard drive will play in games beyond support for likely future hard drive game saves and of course the usual MMO content and game updates.

Sony Electronics, who owns the Sony Computer Entertainment division and their PlayStation lineup, will handle distribution of the new all-in-one system, meaning it won’t be limited to sales in the usual games retail chains (though there’s no reason why it wouldn’t still be sold at local games shops like EB too). In all likelihood, you’ll see a PSX hooked up to a gorgeous high-end TV at your nearest electronics store. It is interesting to note that the system does lack component in or out, but the VGA port would seem to still support the idea of the system kicking out DVDs and supported PS2 games in uber-tasty progressive scan, since the new PS2 revision due to hit stores in a few months will offer this as well.