‘Overwatch 2’ Will Leave Some Players Behind After All

Games ‘Overwatch 2’ Will Leave Some Players Behind After All Kris Holt Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover all things games, especially Overwatch. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Oct 3, 2022, 06:00am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Kiriko in Overwatch 2 Blizzard Entertainment Cast your mind back 35 months, a whole pandemic ago, to BlizzCon 2019. That was when Blizzard officially announced Overwatch 2 . Then-game director Jeff Kaplan tried to assure fans that the transition to the sequel would be a smooth one.

He said Overwatch 1 and Overwatch 2 players would be part of “a shared multiplayer environment where no one gets left behind. ” As it turns out, Blizzard is shutting down Overwatch 1 today . It will move everyone over to the sequel tomorrow.

Well, not everyone. Some players are getting left behind after all. MORE FROM FORBES How To Pre-Download ‘Overwatch 2’ And Set Up SMS Protect By Kris Holt Blizzard is requiring all players to link a valid mobile phone number to their Battle.

net account to play Overwatch 2. “The key idea behind SMS Protect is to have an investment on behalf of the owner of that account and add some limitations or restrictions behind how you might have an account,” Overwatch 2 lead software engineer Bill Warnecke told me last week . “There’s no exclusions or loopholes around the system.

” That’s proving to be a big problem for some folks. Several players have claimed that Blizzard’s system isn’t accepting their phone numbers. The company said prepaid and VOIP numbers won’t be valid.

MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless numbers don’t seem to be working either. I’m expecting to hear more from Blizzard about this issue soon. MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry Last night, I was playing a final few rounds of 6v6 Mystery Heroes.

When I asked everyone in one game if they were looking forward to Overwatch 2, one said they wouldn’t be moving over. They said they didn’t have a phone. While this is completely anecdotal, it’s another example of the kind of player who may not have access to Overwatch 2 .

MORE FROM FORBES ‘Overwatch 2’ PC System Requirements Explained By Kris Holt Elsewhere, some PC players might be left out. Unlike the original game, Overwatch 2 will not run on Windows 7 or 8 . It has modest system requirements by modern gaming standards, but they’re slightly more demanding than in Overwatch 1 .

As such, some folks who enjoy Overwatch 1 might not have a rig that’s powerful enough to run Overwatch 2 . While I’m broadly on board with the measures Blizzard is taking to minimize the likelihood of cheaters and toxic players pervading the game (it’ll be harder to sign up for a new account if they get banned), it’s a pity that the SMS Protect requirement is leaving some players behind. It actually seems to be making the game less accessible, which runs counter to one of Overwatch ’s core tenets of inclusivity.

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