Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard Entertainment is removing part of the game’s SMS Protect two-factor authentication requirement after widespread community complaints.
In a forum post shared at around 8:30pm CT last night, Blizzard community manager Jodie laid out the steps the company has been taking to stabilize servers in the wake of widespread congestion problems and two DDoS attacks. At the beginning of the post, they revealed big changes to SMS Protect: starting tomorrow, Oct. 7, all Overwatch 2 players with a connected Battle.net account will no longer need to provide a phone number. All players who have played since June 9, 2021 fall under this category.
This change does not apply to new accounts, which will still need to provide a phone number to play Overwatch 2. The blog post does not mention whether a postpaid number is still required for those accounts or whether prepaid phones can be used. Dot Esports has reached out to Blizzard for comment.
The adjustment comes after days of community outrage over the decision to require phone numbers. Players who use prepaid phones were upset at their inability to play Overwatch 2 due to the requirements, while others were concerned that kids and teenagers who don’t have phones would be unable to play. The requirement was originally put into place as part of Blizzard’s Defense Matrix anti-toxicity initiative with the goal of preventing disruptive players whose accounts were banned from simply making a fresh account with a cheap prepaid phone and re-entering the game.
Jodie mentioned at the end of the SMS Protect section that the development team may make additional changes to the system in the future and that they are listening to community feedback.
