Many new PlayStation 4 users have complained about the short battery life of the Dual Shock 4. Some have noticed that many games don’t use the light bar feature, and if that could be disabled for such games, battery life would improve.
One user asked Sony President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, if Sony would deliver an update that could do exactly that. If a game doesn’t need the light bar, we can turn it off. Unfortunately, Yoshida responded simply on Twitter: “No.”
This doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen, but for the time being, you’ll just have to deal. It’s probably a good plan to invest in a charging station; it only costs $30, and it’d come in handy. Then again, if you’ve got two controllers, you can always have one charging while you’re using the other one. I did that with my PS3 controllers and everything worked out fine. As for the Dual Shock 4, it’s a highly advanced gamepad, so it’s no wonder that it drains battery life pretty quickly.
Of course, it all depends on how long you play. I don’t have the time to play for hours and hours every day, so the shorter battery life of the PS4 controller is no big deal. It really annoys the more avid gamers, though.
Hey, remember wires?
Thing is, I never really had a problem with wired controllers. They certainly never died (unless you broke ’em in a fit of rage) and honestly, were they really in the way? I know the stories about people tripping over controller cables and subsequently tearing the console off the shelf. I came close myself. Still, that very small risk might be worth the cord if the controller’s lifespan is unlimited.
