Sony’s PS3 controllers, also called Sixaxis, are wireless, but unfortunately do not feature removable battery packs, which makes them useless after the rechargeable batteries lose their efficiency, common after a finite number of charges. 

A Sony spokesman has denied the rumor, saying “This is a purely speculative story and is largely untrue. The latest generation of Lithium Polymer batteries hardly suffer any memory effect at all, so it’ll be many years before there’s any degradation in terms of battery performance.”

Furthermore, Sony has the courage of its convictions, and is willing to replace any controllers, free of charge, when their battery dies. 

When and if this happens, then of course we will be providing a service to exchange these items.

The Sixaxis controller will retail in stores for a modest price of $49.99 on the PS3 launch date: November 17th in the US.