Overwatch 2’s SMS Defend requirement – a measure meant to curb poisonous and disruptive participant conduct — now accommodates cell phones on a pay as you go plan, Blizzard Leisure introduced on Thursday. Which means the requirement to attach a Battle.web account to a cellular quantity is again for a lot of gamers of the free-to-play hero shooter.
SMS Defend was disabled for a majority of Overwatch 2 gamers on Oct. 5 as Blizzard coped with a raft of connectivity issues arising from the extremely anticipated sport’s launch the day earlier than. Blizzard launched the cellphone quantity requirement as a method to restrict free account creation and sanction unhealthy actors with out banning them, solely to see them return later.
However as a result of SMS Defend wouldn’t work with the information plans on pay as you go cell phones, many gamers discovered themselves successfully locked out of the brand new sport one week earlier than its launch. Making issues worse, Overwatch 2 replaces the unique 2015, whose servers closed on Oct. 3, that means longtime followers had no entry to both sport or their development.
Blizzard then walked again the SMS Defend requirement for current Battle.web accounts, whereas leaving it in place for brand new accounts or ones that by no means had been linked to the sport by way of Battle.web.
SMS Defend is one instrument in a broader strategy Blizzard builders name “Protection Matrix,” which is meant “to assist shield the integrity of gameplay and promote constructive conduct in Overwatch 2.” The sport is on the market now for Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X.
