Overwatch 2: The Defense Matrix moderation initiative will analyze your conversations and verify your phone number.

Blizzard is unveiling its Defense Matrix initiative, a set of tools for moderating Overwatch 2. The game will release on October 4th.

Overwatch 2 is scheduled to release on October 4th. Blizzard recently released a set of moderation tools aimed at preventing problematic behavior. The new system will require, for example, a phone number for each account, and audio conversations reported by players will be converted to text. Blizzard named this major initiative the Defense Matrix, after D.Va’s holographic shield ability.

Blizzard unveils its Defense Matrix initiative

The phone system, SMS Protect, means that all Overwatch 2 players will need to link a phone number to their Battle.net account, and that number cannot be used to manage or create another account. This will result in suspensions and other account bans and will make matchmaking fraud more difficult. SMS Protect is not a new idea in the world of competitive online gaming. It has even been proven to reduce smurfing, the practice where good players create new accounts and invite themselves to beginner games to promote their friends, avoid a ban, or just annoy everyone.

Overwatch 2 Moderation Toolkit

Another notable feature of Defense Matrix is ​​the addition of transcripts of flagged voice chats and the introduction of tools to automatically analyze these transcripts. As soon as a player is reported, the system makes a temporary recording of the game’s voice chat and transcribes it into text. The latter is then analyzed by Blizzard’s existing AI-powered abuse detection tools. “Once an audio recording is decrypted, it is immediately deleted, as the sole purpose of the file is to detect possible malicious behavior. The text file is deleted 30 days after decryption.”

The game will release on October 4th.

The studio also explains that audio recordings will take effect a few weeks after the game launches. In addition, Overwatch 2 will not have a general chat functionality. information for both new and existing players. October 2nd will be the last full day to play Overwatch Premier, with Overwatch 2 officially launching worldwide on October 4th at 10am BST.