In case you hadn’t noticed from product photos and the like, the PSPgo lacks a user removable battery. Meaning, it can’t be replaced unless the unit is sent back to Sony, or you are a daring soul that doesn’t mind voiding the warranty.

The long and short of it is that this design decision was made solely in prevention of piracy. While Sony seemingly did a sound enough job of blocking the infamous Pandora battery hack on PSP-3000 units, it wanted to take things a step further with the PSPgo. SCEA marketing man John Koller explains:

You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that, Koller explained. There’s no external battery, so there’s a number of protections put into place on the system.

Considering the situation at hand, we can understand the motivation behind this decision, but all things considered, this is stepping into the territory of punishing legit end-users for the nefarious actions of pirates.

Why You Can’t Remove the Battery From the PSP Go [PSInsider]

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