A fault previously reported by developers is now being experienced by retail consumers. Some PS3 controllers have the tendency to lose their wireless connections for several seconds at a time. To compound things, the console does not register the controller as being disconnected. Usually, on the loss of a connection, the console would automatically pause the game. In this case, as the connection is not lost (as far as the console is concerned), the game does not get paused. Unfortunately, the only fix currently available is to plug in the USB cable.
Several developers have confirmed that they have been experiencing this very same problem repeatedly throughout the last few months of development. Development hardware commonly experience failures before the launch of a console (especially in peripherals); however, our developer contacts expressed surprise that the fault appears to still be present in consumer hardware. Given the frequency of its occurrence, and the fact that this has been a known problem for months, they assumed Sony would have resolved the issue before launch.
This problem seems to be growing, and should be easily fixable, either with new revisions of the controllers, or with firmware updates for the console and/or the controller (the controller has its own firmware which can also be updated). Let’s hope Sony addresses this issue soon. The complaints will only become more pronounced as the console gets into more consumer hands.
i’ve been working on a ps3 title for a few months now and can’t personally recall this happening. occasionally the battery runs out but it generally warns you before it’s completely run down.
Left by 10000 on December 6th, 2006