You need to charge them. A great way to charge it is to plug them into the system and put the system on its docking station or plug it in. It's the only way to charge the controllers or buy a charging dock for the controllers itself. The nintendo branded one goes for $25. If charging them doesnt work they may be defective. Make sure you have synced them to the system as well. Once you hook them into the counsel they should sync to it.