Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the game’s SMS Protection feature will now accept prepaid phones.
In a tweet published earlier today, the company shared that players from around the world can use prepaid phones to satisfy SMS Protect on their Battle.net accounts. The change goes live today with the mid-season patch of season one and will be available to all players until tomorrow.
The change comes amid massive backlash from fans who have used prepaid phones since launch, with many saying they shouldn’t be prevented from playing Overwatch 2 just because they can’t or don’t want to buy a postpaid phone plan.
Blizzard initially announced that SMS Protect, a form of two-factor authentication for Battle.net accounts, will be required for all players to reduce cheating and toxicity. SMS Protect required players to link a postpaid number to their Battle.net account; this was intended to prevent banned players from creating another account after the event.
After intense fan resistance, Blizzard changed the policy a few days after launch, sharing that after June 9, 2021, all players who played the original Overwatch or had a linked Battle.net account would not be required to provide a phone number. Brand new accounts still need to provide a phone number, and each phone number can only be linked to one account. Regardless of platform, all players still need to have a Battle.net account.
Gamers around the world are upset with Blizzard’s desire to block those without postpaid phone numbers, especially since Overwatch 2’s free-to-play status is designed to lower the game’s barrier to entry so more people can play without having to. Pay $60.
Blizzard’s concern is likely due to the fact that players in the original Overwatch will resort to nonsense to open another account after being banned.
