Sony pulling plug on SIXAXIS

by Justin McElroy { Apr 2nd 2008 at 2:30PM }

This shouldn't come as much of a ... shock, but Sony is discontinuing the Sixaxis in light of the DualShock 3's arrival, according to MTV. A Sony rep says that you can likely expect them to all be gone by summertime.

The practical upshot is that if your hands have become so atrophied from a lack of physical activity that you can no longer support the DualShock's heft, you may want to stock up on featherweight Sixaxises (Sixaxi?). Good night, sweet, almost comically light prince. And flights of angels (controllable with aftertouch) sing thee to thy rest.

Tags: breakingnews, controllers, dualshock3, sixaxis

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

nerrrrrrd @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:36PM

these never should of existed. I like last gen tech in my next gen!

Hala Madrid!!! SSBB Code:3866-7729-0830 @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:22PM

I agree these controllers are useless for me
Sony should have released the DualShock3 controller with the PS3 in the first place

glitched @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:41PM

I'm gonna buy up some sixxaxis before they are discontinued. I will probably never get a dualshock3.
personal preference.

Steve @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:24PM

So long SUXASSES, we hardly used ya!

Zeus.:God @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:45PM

@ Steve:

LOL!

That was actually pretty good!

+1

Bryan Young @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:36PM

FIRST POST!
personally i didnt care for the sixaxis. but im sure that there would have been a great game for it to be used. now im wondering. what is konami gana do now with it being obsolete?

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:39PM

DS3 has motion sensing too.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:40PM

Dude, your wrong in two ways.

First of all, you're second poster.

Second of all, Sixaxis itself is not dead, just the stand alone controller ¬_¬ Let me break that down for you. Motion has not been ditched, its just been added to the dual shock 3 and all the none vibrating sixaxis' are the ones being ditched. Which means Konami still has motion detecting as normal, but now also have rumble. No losses for anyone, only gain :)

Agathos @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:38PM

OMG! What about LAIR!?

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:40PM

(Copy/pasted from above, cos I'm too lazy to type it out again. Please ignore the fact that this disclaimer is longer than the post itself.)

DS3 has motion sensing too.

primetime4 @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:41PM

Dualshock 3's still have motion control (I've used one since last November). I guess the title is extremely misleading on purpose.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:41PM

OMG, how misinformed are people today :O, lmao

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:39PM

I like the Sixaxis. I hated it at first - especially its light weight - but it quickly grew on me.

And as rumble isn't a big deal for me (always had it turned off in my PS1 and PS2 games) its successor isn't much of an improvement - it's just more money. :/

Lars @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:36PM

Couldn't agree more.

At first I was a little annoyed at the lightness of the controller, but after the initial shock I realized that it's a lot better lighter (especially if you're shaking it around a lot for motion control). Although hefty products imply quality or something on a subconscious level, such is not really the case.

And I too turned off rumble in a lot of PS2/PS1 games. Sometimes it would add to the game if done right, but often it was just obnoxious and annoying. I like how Logitech did it with their wireless PS2 controller, a button right on the front to toggle rumble.

Rumble can add a nice touch sometimes, but when I'm playing without it I never find myself thinking "man, if only my controller was vibrating right now!"

Myke @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:22PM

I agree w/ both of you!

I got use to the light weight but I grip controllers hard so I got irked by hearing the plastic crackel in my hands. I really never enjoyed rumble last gen w/ the PS2 but when playing Burnout or Uncharted w/o rumble and then playing both games w/ rumble, I enjoy rumble now. I agree that the DS3 should of been out in the first place but Sony made a bad mistake and it was costly. At least, they correcting the situation. All companies make mistakes!!!

Agathos @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:40PM

Seriously though I enjoyed the motion controlled segments of Heavenly Sword, and was curious to any MGS4 Implementation and now I'm wondering about support of that in these games going forward.

Oooh ooh, maybe they actually will Patch Lair for regular controls?

Jnas @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:44PM

...

Motion control is in the DS3 you friggin bobble head.

Anyhoo, i say good riddance! The Sixaxis was a cheap piece of plastic crap.

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:42PM

((Copy/pasted from above again. Hm, do you think I have some sort of pathological need to correct everyone that gets this wrong? I do. I think I might need help.))

(Copy/pasted from above, cos I'm too lazy to type it out again. Please ignore the fact that this disclaimer is longer than the post itself.)

DS3 has motion sensing too.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:43PM

DS3 still has motion! Gah! How many times do we have to say it? lol

Dudeman08 @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:23PM

motion? what is that? I thought it was waggle...

DangerMouse @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:13PM

It's a vibrator.

zzzZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZZZ

Umeadi @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:41PM

I'm just wondering if the MSRP will be the same as the Sixaxis. I refuse to pay more for "last gen" tech. I don't even use rumble.

vidGuy @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:44PM

Last I saw the DS3 is supposed to be $5 more, at USD$54.99.

robert @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:51PM

pre-ordered one on amazon for $49.99
same as the list price for the sixaxis

they finally updated it's current msrp to $54.99 so it's a $5 difference for the rumble

Phranctoast @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:42PM

I never liked rumble. It had its moments in some games but for me, was turned off most of the time.

I wonder how the battery will do in the new controller.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:43PM

Same, they havent said much on the matter.

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:43PM

Apparently it has a shorter life span. If you want a longer battery life though, you can always turn rumble off.

Crazy 88 @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:46PM

The battery life is just about the same, maybe a little better. I have had a dual shock since January, thank you Play-Asia.com.

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:47PM

Really? I guess I was misinformed.

Ripcord83 @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:54PM

Actually, It seems better to me.
When I got mine, it was fully charged in a bit over 30min.
Plus I've only charge it like 4 times since December.
My Sixaxis take forever to charge for some reason,
and I usually kill the battery within 2 days.

kbomb1upc @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:42PM

@Hyams
I've also have a DS3 from Play-Asia and I see on difference between the battery life.

why not the LS2/LS7? @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:12PM

I have had one since January, and the battery life seems longer on the DS3. Must have a bigger battery.

It of course would depend on the game, but in every game I've played, the battery life is longer on the DS3.

ChooChooCharlie (Brawl: 1504-5357-9285) @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:42PM

@ Bryan Young & Agathos

Umm ... you guys do know that the DS3 also has motion controls in addition to the rumble, right? Sony didn't swap motion for rumble, they just added rumble.

vidGuy @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:43PM

There's really no sense in keeping the SIXAXIS around considering the DS3 has all of the same features plus rumble. Unless of course they wanted to keep the annoyingly-capitalized palindrome around. But wait, SIXAXIS is stamped on the DS3 as well! Happy day!

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:45PM

They could have always dropped the price of the Sixaxis and sold it as a cheaper alternative.

vidGuy @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:47PM

And have to keep two production lines manufacturing very similar - but different - products, just to sell the SIXAXIS for less? I don't think so.

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:51PM

Well, the 360 has two controllers (wire and wireless). Why can't the PS3 have a rumble and rumbleless version?

Plus it'd be slightly easier on my wallet. ^_^

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:55PM

Thats what they have done Hymns, you can turn off rumble apparently to preserve battery, although, the cheap feel I was getting used to, lol

Oh well, back to heavy clunks

Steve @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:26PM

@ Hymans:

Because nobody ever claimed that wired was last gen.

Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:02PM

Steve, what has that got to do with whether or not two versions of the PS3 controller should remain in the market?

Are you so incapable of independant thought that you can only spout the anti-PS3 catchphrases, even when discussing a topic that is only vaguely related to the catchphrase in question?

(Incidently, wired IS last gen, but let's ignore that. ^_^)

robert @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:44PM

the motion sensors are not being removed, they are just adding the rumble back in.

this isn't new information, why all the confusion?

Jahbuh Dahut @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:47PM

The way this article reads is as though motion sensing is gone. The controller name was sixaxis not the abillity to move the controller through mid-air that is called motion sensing which is included in the new controller. Dang Joystiq this was very confusing and I'm sure it just sent ripples through the your gaming audience.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:08PM

Only through the idiots of the audience.

Mr Khan @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:16PM

The title of the article can be read to imply that they are terminating motion-sensing support

However, that's why there's an article to read

Christian @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:45PM

Sixaxes, I believe is plural. Weird, never really thought about it before. Axes is the plural of axis, if the online dictionary I used is correct.

Alahmnat @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:53PM

Damn, beaten to the punch...

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:56PM

Sixaxisess

Wulf @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:50PM

This was written on the wall... Same thing happened with the original PSX controller and the original DualShock.

I had predicted this a couple weeks ago in my review of the SIXAXIS DualShock 3(though, no real huge leap of logic to do so...):

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=770472