Blizzard announced changes to Overwatch 2’s SMS security requirements, following reports from players who said they were barred from accessing the game if they used a pre-paid phone. Blizzard’s Overwatch community manager outlined the changes in a forum post and said they should go into effect on Oct. 7, 2022, though the improvements don’t benefit everyone.
Players who created a Battle.net account before June 9, 2021, will have the phone number requirement waived. That means veteran Overwatch fans can access Overwatch 2 even if they use a pre-paid phone. Anyone who signed up after that date is still subject to the SMS requirement, though, so while the change will benefit existing players and those who had their phone numbers unexpectedly removed from their accounts, some newcomers will still be blocked from playing Overwatch 2.
Blizzard also addressed lengthy Overwatch 2 queue times and said that, while the team has addressed several issues affecting the wait duration, players should still expect long queue times for the foreseeable future.
Dealing with the recent DDoS attack and other stresses on Overwatch 2’s servers requires an extensive amount of work, some of which entails adding extra stress to the already-overwrought servers to create new nodes that will eventually help lighten the load.
Another issue Blizzard acknowledged relates to reports of missing skins and characters. The publisher said no data is actually lost, even if items or data seem to be absent from Overwatch 2, and encouraged players to wait for the migration process to finish – which make take a few days – and ensure they fully completed their account merge.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
