Sony is working on a Sixaxis controller with rumble:

http://www.innerbits.com/blog/2007/06/14/ps3-controller-with-rumble-in-development/

How do you think they'll manage the introduction of the new controllers? Offering a free upgrade to their customers, or making it an optional purchase and therefore not a main feature of the PS3?

I think ist stupid that they didnt just level with consumers and say they didnt have rumble because of the lawsuite instead of "its not needed"

And as a past owner of the 360 and current PS3 owner, id have to say id fell far less slighted with this rumble scenerio than the HDM/Larger HD crap Microsoft tried to pull.

So while im a bit upset, having microsoft dick me around harder with essentially the same crap on a more imprtant scale puts this into perspective so im not as pissed as i could be, thats for sure. 

well its actually probably going to be the best force feedback on the market. I remember a while back that Immersion showed off some insanely cool rumbles that react differently mattering the gun your firing to how your hit.

I'm pretty sure new consoles produced will come standard with rumble controllers, and they'll just sell new rumble controllers separately. They're not going to give free replacements, that's just stupid.

I think it's lame that the first controllers didn't have rumble, but it's not the end of the world...it's good that they're finally making some controllers with rumble.

They only need a very very good PR to drive the actual customers to buy the new ones, without to much complains.

But I expect some criticism. 

TBH, like previous people have said, rumble isn't anywhere as big as deal as HDMI, so it's not as bad as Microsoft IMO. Also, I think they'll just phase out the non rumble controllers, although if thse rumble ones do come along, then we'll probably but them so we can play 4-player games.

I am glad there's a Sixaxis available without it, I greatly dislike the vibration implementation in many games. While firing a gun it does add to the experience for me, but when hit it often a distraction or when dying pretty unrealistic. IMO rumble was overused IMO to unrealistic and distracting proportions for many games. I don't want my mouse to shake on my PC.

Mgs3 rumble was awesome, especially when your hiding and it vibrates when you can hear snakes heart beat.. the wii's vibration took it to the next level though, felt way better compareed to the ps2's rumble especially on wii menu, i was surprised when i first used it.. i hope the ps3's vibration improve more..
anyway way back in the psx era didnt the first gen controllers lack analog sticks and vibration?. so how did that work out?. (i was too young to know if the consumers got angry when they released rumble with analog sticks)
and MikeB you can turn vibration off if you want -_-..
and i remember seeing somewhere that adding vibration would kill battery life to ridiculously low hours..

well this is cool. It was very hard for Sony to say that they lost a lawsuit before, but I guess they realized this is the best path for them as many consumers should be very happy to see rumble make its way back. Hopefully, this rumble is even better than the stuff out right now.

Sony could save a lot of face by issuing a recall to give all current PS3 owners new SIXAXIS-with-rumble controllers.