Name of Responsibility: Trendy Warfare II would require gamers to register with a telephone quantity on Battle.internet to play the sport, in an effort to make gamers answerable for their actions. The sport is about for launch later this month on October twenty eighth. The Verge experiences: It is a repeat of the apply that brought about points for Overwatch 2 gamers final week, PCGamer experiences. A Battle.internet assist web page lists the upcoming CoD shooter as certainly one of its three video games that “require that you just add a telephone quantity to your Battle.internet account” to play, alongside Overwatch 2 and 2019’s Trendy Warfare. The telephone verification system, which Activision Blizzard calls SMS Shield, is supposed to chop down on poisonous habits from gamers, stopping them from creating countless new accounts to evade bans or to cheat. “Limiting the variety of free accounts {that a} single individual can create helps maintain gamers accountable for his or her actions and, in flip, reduces toxicity and dishonest and ensures a constructive group expertise for all gamers,” Activision Blizzard’s assist web page reads.
The issue is that SMS Shield is designed for text-enabled cell phones, and does not deal with all telephone numbers equally. A separate Battle.internet assist web page notes that “cell phones with pay as you go plans might not work with the telephone notification service.” It additionally does not work with VoIP numbers. That restricts the service to gamers with postpaid mobile plans, which is probably not reasonably priced or simply accessible to many gamers around the globe.
Requiring gamers to supply a telephone quantity is not new (Dota 2 and Rainbow Six Siege each require them for ranked play) however there have not been widespread experiences of issues with pay as you go telephone plans with these earlier implementations. One participant we spoke to was blocked from taking part in Overwatch 2 after they entered the identical quantity they’d used to efficiently play Dota 2 for years. It is unclear whether or not Activision Blizzard’s telephone quantity necessities will apply equally for Trendy Warfare II gamers throughout each Battle.internet and Steam, given the sport is offered throughout each PC digital shops.
