A selection of the “hero” characters available to play in Overwatch 2
(Picture: Activision Blizzard)Multiplayer shooter game Overwatch 2 will no longer ask most players to verify their identity with a phone number, following significant player backlash against the anti-cheating system.
Originally, players had to connect an active phone number to game publisher Blizzard’s Battle.net account, but some found that the system didn’t accept pre-paid numbers, which are used by many as a cheaper alternatives to pricey contracts.
This effectively left many lower-income gamers locked out of the game, including those who had purchased and played the original Overwatch.
Blizzard said the SMS Protect authentication system was meant to prevent disruptive behaviours, such as abusive players from returning to the game after being banned.
The company also wanted to discourage the practice known as “smurfing”, where more experienced players create new accounts just to play against novice players.
However, only the players who had already connected a Battle.net account previously will be exempted from the phone number requirement, the company said in a forum post.
"Accounts that were not connected to Battle.net, as well as new accounts, will still have to meet SMS Protect requirements,” the company added.
The initial requirement left many fans upset, with some noting that they were being excluded from playing a free game because they were too poor to afford a “proper” phone number.
”Never thought I would be disqualified from playing Overwatch based on my ability to afford a phone contract, but here we are. Blizzard is the first company to make me feel too poor to play a game,” one Overwatch player wrote on Reddit.
The game, which launched to much fanfare on Tuesday, quickly ran into difficulties, including server glitches and an attempted hack.
Perhaps one player summed it all up best, when he posted a screen recording on Reddit of a game glitch where a character seemed to have been designed with in-built astigmatism. “Can’t get the servers to run, but CAN depict the most accurate portrayal of astigmatism I have ever seen in gaming. Keep it up Blizzard.”
