Blizzard recently announced additional Overwatch 2 verification measures where players will need to add their phone numbers for extra security. The goal is to reduce cheating in the FPS hero shooter by tying accounts to active phone numbers, but early indications (which PCGamesN first spotted) are that the anti-cheat efforts are causing more harm than good, with players reporting the system won’t actually let them add their phone numbers.
Several Overwatch players posted about the issue on Blizzard’s forums. After receiving a notification from Blizzard that they needed to add a phone number to their accounts, they followed the steps to do so, then received a message saying the number already existed – even though it wasn’t on the account after all.
While several people responded to the initial forum posts saying they ran into the same problem, it’s unclear how widespread the problem is. Blizzard has yet to acknowledge any issue, which means the only recourse frustrated players have is submitting a support ticket. Overwatch 2 releases Oct. 4, 2022, for console and PC, but unless Blizzard support resolves the issue before then, anyone affected by the phone number bug won’t be able to access the game.
It may be a slow start once they get access to the game anyway. New players will also have to play at least 100 battles before they can unlock the original Overwatch heroes, while Overwatch 2‘s new heroes are locked behind the game’s battle pass.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
