It appears to be for their own protection if people are asking why Blizzard is being overly insistent about turning on SMS Protect. “An industry-proven solution” against “cheating and disruptive behavior,” according to Blizzard explained , is SMS Protect. This “additional layer of protection” aims to stop banned players from re-entering the game by helping to authenticate ownership of hacked accounts. After all, using temporary prepaid numbers rather than phones with binding contracts makes it much simpler to trick the system. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that users of prepaid phones are completely barred from playing “Overwatch 2.” The countless unqualified players who feel that they are being punished and ridiculed for owning a prepaid phone are now protesting this on Reddit (via Kotaku ).
Fortunately for those impacted, the reaction that followed might have prompted the “Overwatch 2” team to reconsider, according to its most current blog post . Jodie, the community manager, reacted by stating that the phone number requirement will be eliminated starting on October 7. But only current “Overwatch” gamers with linked Battle.net accounts will be affected by the move. The SMS Protect restrictions still apply to players with new accounts or those whose accounts haven’t been linked to Battle.net yet. It appears that “Overwatch 2” will still not accept new players using prepaid phones, at least not right away.
