Innerbits, the site that posted the awesome breakdown of XMB memory costs last month, has come through again with a great article about the upcoming rumble-capable Sixaxis. According to the site, they've gotten confirmation from two different sources at Sony that they have been working on a rumbling Sixaxis for several months now and are just trying to work out the last of the kinks. Currently, the biggest issue is battery life -- or the lack thereof. Evidently between the rumble and the wireless support, the battery has been draining too fast to be considered acceptable. As it is now, Sony touts 30 hours of battery life per charge on the Sixaxis and while Innerbits didn't specify what the current battery life of a rumbling Sixaxis is, you can assume that anything less than 5-10 hours per charge will be considered unacceptable. Nobody wants to have to hook up their controller in the middle of a marathon game of Warhawk.
The article also talks about some of the PR problems that Sony will face with the release of a new controller. PS3 owners who have already bought the original Sixaxis will now have to either deal with the lack of rumble or go out and buy 2-4 new controllers, and that adds up to no small chunk of change. Also after Sony has maligned rumble-support as 'last-gen', will consumers be willing to embrace their sudden about-face? Relevant questions for sure, but considering how PS3 owners have been clammoring for rumble support it's likely that they will be willing to purchase additional controllers. What about you guys? Would you replace your original Sixaxis controllers for a more rumbly one?
