Unfortunately no. There is nothing at this time anyone can do (support and tech support said so by many who submitted a ticket) besides switching providers or not playing the game at all.
It’s ridiculous. It really is, by all counts.
They only said to keep raising awarness on the forums with the hopes the devs see it.
Well I mean… this is not functional.
After today, they will lose thousands of players. Instantly. Over night.
Potentially millions.
I’ve tried getting in touch with support - absolutely no help
I’ve commented on multiple of their posts on twitter - absolutely nothing
I find it funny that no Content Creators are even speaking about the issue either.
Oh I know, it’s a huge deal. I’m having a hard time still processing this. You’re meaning to tell me these guys they sat around the office and discussed this matter without the intent of loosing pre paids, VOIPs, pre paids to post paids and post paids without SMS?..
I don’t know what it is, but it’s either they made a HUGE mistake on their end or it was intentional as they felt we weren’t actually worth enough in the long run because they know they will be making billions off of this game with who they’ll have playing…
The problem is, they’re marketing this as “free to play” and what happens when little timmy downloads OW and is met with “Sorry, you can’t play without a valid phone number” and even mom’s pre-paid doesn’t let him in?
He goes back to fortnite, and forgets that OW exists.
That’s what happens.
I’m guessing Blizz is going to do something about it. It’s affecting too many people. As much as I want them to continue failing the player base in hopes that people will wake up to the crappy company Blizz has become, this is affecting their bottom line and they aren’t going to keep anything in place that gets in the way of them and their money.
I’ve seen some youtubers who arent sponsored by this company talk about it but with very little views on some. However, those with a decent amount of views I can tell you contained 99% of complaints regarding SMS phone verification in the comment section.
I’m actually lying in wait to see if some player loses their MIND after this happens and their systems get DOS’D to kingdom-come.
Not saying that is the RIGHT thing to do, or anyone SHOULD do it. But some player that just unlocked EVERYTHING in the game and spent hundreds of dollars on loot boxes, turns on the game, doesn’t know anything about the impending doom, turns on the game, says "okay, I will try to play my overwatch today… omg whaaa:?!’
Goes to sign up for the SMS even and finds out it wont work, emails blizzard support…
Next thing you know, every bot-net on the darknet is flipped on and the game data centers are absolutely HAMMERED by an irate gamer.
I mean we KNOW how much gamers RAGE.
I mean, they did. I’m saying that they didn’t make it immediately clear and had you clicking on hyperlinks to get to the SMS verification information page. I’m criticising the fact that it wasn’t made immediately obvious.
I personally went ahead and read the page before I verified again back when the Watchpoint Pack and OW2 2nd beta was released but it’s obvious that most wouldn’t.
Exactly. If you are required to switch phone providers in order go play, which are out of pocket costs, it’s technically not a “F2P” at all. You might as well slap a $40- $60 price tag on this and call it a day…
And even then they would still probably ask for a phone number verification since SMS is still wanted…
This right here is the problem.
Now, while not every Cricket wireless user is also an OW player, that immediately alienates 12 million potential players.
Let that sink in.
And that is only one of the non-verified services.
Yes indeed! I was just typing what you meant 
What would happen in such a situation if that were to happen? I play on console so I don’t know how this workd when it comes go PC.
Oh yeah, easily. If 74 mil alone in the US have pre paids, and we had like a 25% on that where EU (I think it was EU, not sure) was like around 35% iirc? That must be all of EU technically.
OW doesnt even have half the amount of players most games have anymore. What was their highest player count to their most current I wonder? Not a lot I think?
I legit can just see it so well in my head right now…
Little timmy sees an overblown launch day ad on youtube while watching his fortnite videos, and goes to download the “NEW FREE TO PLAY GAME!”
One he hasn’t been able to convince his mother to buy, or hasn’t had the funds for before… but now it’s open to him!
He goes to download it, it actually downloads… his excitement for all those new skins and gamemodes is rising.
“Sorry, you need to tie a phone number to your battle net account to gain access”
“Mom!! Can I have your phone number!?”
(two hours later)
“Sorry timmy, please stop crying, I’m only a single mom on cricket wireless, we aren’t rich enough for you to play that free to play game”
Okay okay, I embellish a tiny bit… BUT THE LOGIC IS THERE.
No, I understand as there are definitely families and people in that position. There will also be families who want to play with their kids but can’t as most refuse to buy a phone for their 8 year old (I don’t even blame them ) so there goes all of their time, data, money etc.
They are shutting down OW1 so they couldn’t even let people go back to that. It’s so sad.
something has to give… right?
Otherwise… god.
Honestly, we can only hope they hear us and that we don’t fall of deaf ears. I know they go by the numbers game donow jt will all come down to morality on their end. Numbers or devoted players? Can’t it be both?
It shouldn’t even have to but alas, corporate greed is a thing and time is money for those higher ups. I’m sure the devs wanted nothing to do with this. They probably can’t do anything unless their superiors say so.
This is very disappointing and my heart honestly goes out to everyone who was so excited to play this game and who now find out they can’t after being long time devotees to this game. They should be ashamed honestly.
They promote a game about integity, fighting for those less fortunate and the right thing as well and being heroes to all, yet they do this? Disgusting practice.
If you live in the US Talkatone works and should let you play.
That said it’s seeming more and more likely that the phone number in question will need occasional re-verification, so you might end up having to pay an (indirect) subscription fee for OW2 (to keep the number) if that’s the case.