Players worried about illegal items in Phantasy Star Online can rest a little easier, as Sonic Team has announced a rather unique solution to the concern. In order to minimize duplicated items and similar cheating enabled by devices such as the GameShark, the team will deploy marshals to monitor the network. Any players caught with illegal items may be forced to disconnect from the server; then, they will be unable to reconnect until they have discarded the items.

While this course of action will in all likelihood not spell a total elimination of cheating, it should at least provide some deterrent for those poor souls who just have to break the rules. Phantasy Star Online- version 2 is slated for release in North America, although no time frame has been given for this release.