Blizzard to Remove Overwatch 2’s Controversial Login Requirement for Most Players

The launch of Overwatch 2 has been a tumultuous one, with plenty of server errors and awful queue times plaguing the experience. Not only that, but the new SMS Protect feature has been a source of huge controversy as well, as players with pre-paid phone plans were unable to bind their accounts to their number.

Blizzard has since published a new update on the status of Overwatch 2’s launch, with the headline being that they’ll be removing the phone number requirement for most Overwatch 2 players and Battle.net members. This change hasn’t gone live just yet, but will take effect on Friday, Oct. 7.

“We have made the decision to remove phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players. Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle.net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play. We are working to make this change and expect it to go live on Friday, October 7. We will update players once it is in effect.”

That being said, new accounts made after June 9 will still be required to adhere to the phone number requirement, and Blizzard states that they are still committed to combating disruptive behavior in-game, and this should help with that. The company goes on to state that they’ll continue to listen to feedback and make changes in this area if necessary.

As for the issues with missing cosmetics and players not being able to log in after the Account Merge, things should start getting better today. Blizzard mentions that the Account Merge process was not fully completed for some players, which resulted in skins and various cosmetics not showing up in Overwatch 2. However, they also made sure to state that no player data has been wiped, and that it’ll simply take time for cosmetics to populate in-game.

In addition to that, Blizzard also mentioned that there was a bug preventing players who had done the Account Merge from logging in. The bug should now be resolved, allowing players to log in normally, though the queue times might still be abysmal. Finally, Blizzard mentions that they’ve patched a server to increase login reliability, so it should theoretically get easier for players to get into the game going forward.

Overwatch 2 is now available for PC and consoles.