Blizzard Is Removing ‘Overwatch 2’ Phone Number Requirement As Backlash Intensifies

Games Blizzard Is Removing ‘Overwatch 2’ Phone Number Requirement As Backlash Intensifies Erik Kain Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about video games, entertainment and culture. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Oct 6, 2022, 12:13am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Overwatch 2 Credit: Blizzard The launch of Overwatch 2 has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. The game was hit almost immediately by a massive DDoS attack when it came out Tuesday, causing myriad login and connectivity problems. The game’s developer and publisher, Blizzard, wasn’t prepared to handle this attack, making many players’ first impression of the game little more than a loading screen coupled with intense frustration.

(I was finally able to get logged into the game late Tuesday night after far too much time waiting in endless queues, logging in over and over again and various other shenanigans). But outside of the DDoS attack and frustration around long queues, Blizzard required an extra level of security: You had to enter a phone number associated with your account during the login process in order to cut back on “both cheating and disruptive behavior” in the game. Worse, if you had a prepaid phone (as many millions of Americans do) it wasn’t considered valid, making it impossible for countless lower income gamers to login to Overwatch 2 and play—even if they’d been playing the original game for years.

Even if you had an acceptable phone number, this requirement could prove problematic. I have accounts setup for me and my kids with different email addresses, but until now we didn’t need to include separate phone numbers. Fortunately my kids are old enough to have phones now, but what if I didn’t allow phones in my house or they were too young? You need separate phone numbers for each player, including children (and Overwatch 2, in my humblest of opinions, is very kid-friendly!) MORE FOR YOU Juan Soto Contract Rejection Could Make Orioles A Better Buy Than Nationals Wordle Today Hint, Answer, Clues For Thursday October 6th — Word Of The Day #474 MLB 2022 Playoffs: Series Matchups, Schedule And Odds In any case, it appears Blizzard has relented at least to some degree.

While the phone requirement hasn’t been removed entirely, Blizzard has cut back on the number of players required to have a phone associated with their account: “Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle. net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play. We are working to make this change and expect it to go live on Friday, October 7.

We will update players once it is in effect. “We remain committed to combating disruptive behavior in Overwatch 2—accounts that were not connected to Battle. net as well as new accounts will still have to meet SMS Protect requirements, which helps to ensure we’re protecting our community against cheating.

If a player is caught engaging in disruptive behavior, their account may be banned whether they have a new account or not. “As a team, we will keep listening to ongoing feedback and will make further adjustments in this area if it is required. ” Blizzard has also made the following changes: SMS Protect Blizzard has removed phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players.

Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle. net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play. Blizzard expects this change to go live on Friday, October 7 and will update players once it is in effect.

Queue Times and Connectivity Issues Blizzard is working on patching servers to improve stability and increase login reliability. They have addressed some issues and are in the process of addressing others, but players should still expect to see queues in the short-term. Much more detailed information on the forum post .

Missing Player Items/Data Approximately half of reported Missing Item cases are a result of players having not yet completed their account merge, instructions for which are here . In the other half of reported cases for this issue, things are just taking longer than expected for items from the original Overwatch to transfer and populate in Overwatch 2. Blizzard is exploring multiple fixes on this, further detailed in the forum post.

However, most importantly, in all cases, no player data has been wiped or lost. Incorrectly Locked Heroes and Items for Existing Players Relogging into the game will resolve this issue in most cases. DDoS Attacks On the day of launch, the above issues were exacerbated by DDoS attacks—while they did not directly cause any of these issues, they made the working environment to solve these issues more challenging.

Blizzard has not suffered any further attacks. Once again, all of this feels like an unforced error that could have been avoided with proper planning and preparation. A major launch like this should have the server capacity to withstand both a massive influx of players and a DDoS attack.

And with a little more logical consideration, it seems pretty obvious that requiring a phone number (and excluding players with prepaid phone plans) would cause an enormous headache and tons of backlash. The right way to do this is to incentivize the addition of phone numbers rather than make it obligatory. Give away free skins or other goodies to anyone who sets up 2-factor authentication, for instance.

In any case, this has been a pretty bad launch as far as AAA video games go, but at least Blizzard appears to be responding quickly to these issues and making changes. Follow me on Twitter . Check out my website .

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