Blizzard announced last week that all players of Overwatch 2 will be required to attach their phone number to their Battle.net account in order to play the game. The requirement was added as part of Blizzard's efforts to combat in-game toxicity and abuse, and the new 2FA system, called SMS Protect, will not accept certain types of numbers, "including prepaid and VOIP." This understandably caused a stir. Because it effectively means that if you own a prepaid cell phone, you cannot play Overwatch.

This is a puzzling move. This is not the first time that a phone number is required to play ranked matches; "Dota 2" (opens in new tab) introduced such a policy in 2017, and "Rainbow Six Siege" (opens in new tab) does the same thing. However, requiring a phone number to access the game and excluding a large portion of potential players based solely on their choice of phone plan is an entirely different level of restriction. The outcry against this policy was so strong that Blizzard quickly relaxed the phone number requirement (opens in new tab) for some "Overwatch" players.

However, Overwatch 2 is not the only game to adopt this rule.

The phone notification page on the Battle.net support site (opens in new tab) states that Modern Warfare 2, Overwatch 2, and "newly created" Modern Warfare accounts all require a phone number to grant access

"Adding a phone number will allow Blizzard Entertainment to send you notifications when important changes are made to your account. As long as you have a cell phone in a supported country that has a data plan and is not a prepaid or VOIP number, you can take advantage of this service."

While this seems fairly clear, the situation is somewhat confusing, and further down the page it says, "Cell phones with prepaid plans may not be used with the phone notification service." However, this is a direct reference to phone notifications from Battle.net, not access to the game.

Some players are definitely locked out: one Call of Duty fan in Florida told PC Gamer that after installing the Modern Warfare 2 beta in September, he was asked for a "postpaid phone number" to start the beta. Battle.net refused their prepaid phone number (they subscribe to Cricket Wireless, which also reportedly failed in Overwatch 2), so they could not play.

"It seems very wrong to require video game players to sign a contract with a telecom company before they can play a game they paid for. Especially when prepaid phone plans like mine are becoming increasingly common." They are no longer as special as the old gas stations. I have an iPhone and my phone plan is essentially the same as any other contract plan: unlimited calls, texts, data, etc. But am I ineligible to play future Activision titles because I am making monthly payments?

This is indeed odd, as Blizzard has made the decision to drop the phone requirement for some existing Overwatch accounts, but has done nothing about restrictions on prepaid phones. So new players of Overwatch 2 or those who want to play Modern Warfare 2 are out of luck if they are on a prepaid plan. I have contacted Activision Blizzard for comment on the phone number requirement and will update if I hear back.