Overwatch 2 no longer blocks players with a prepaid phone

Blizzard is reactivating prepaid phone number verification. Overwatch 2 players expelled because of this are finally able to play.

Prepaid phone players can finally play Overwatch 2. Community Manager Activision Blizzard announced this change a few days ago, reversing a seemingly overzealous decision to combat cheating and make it harder for new players to log in. This process change was delivered in the latest patch and is effective immediately.

Blizzard Reactivates Prepaid Phone Number Verification

Before the free-to-play Early Access period kicked off on October 4, Blizzard implemented a number of moderation tools to help prevent cheating and smurfing. Among these tools is the obligation to provide a phone number. The SMS number verification process didn’t work with prepaid, which was actually a pretty good idea since it’s easier for scammers and trolls to get a prepaid plan than a traditional plan. Unfortunately, this also prevented completely legal players from accessing the game.

Other Blizzard moderation tools remain active. Every Overwatch 2 player must have a phone number associated with their Battle.net account in order to play, and the number must not be associated with any other account. It’s also not possible to use VOIP, Wi-Fi, text-only, and internet telephony services to verify a number, so you might want to drop the idea of ​​using your old Google Voice number, for example. If you ever played the first Overwatch, you don’t need to worry about this SMS verification. Other moderation tools used include audio transcription for voice discussions and automatic analysis of transcribed texts.

Overwatch 2 players expelled because of this can finally play

Launching Blizzard’s first first-person shooter wasn’t easy. In addition to keeping users out of the prepaid, Blizzard was the victim of a major DDoS attack that saw players line up with several thousand others impatient. Bugs broke this great party during the early access period: items and currencies disappeared, sections were not populated, and other areas became inaccessible. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard announced that they were forgiving gifts to players.