I mean, so many people use prepaid numbers because they tend to be much more cost-efficient than monthly plans (probably in ANY country). And I’m pretty sure a lot of users are very reluctant about providing phone numbers to play a game, especially if you bought the previous game and played for years + bought the new season pass.
On top of that, there’s ppl like me that’s living in a different country than where you made your account.
If they’re going to require phone numbers, they should at least make it possible to
- add international numbers
- use any working number (regardless of whether it’s VOIP or prepaid)
Personally, I believe forcing SMS protection on users to counter abuses is not a good idea. They have better alternatives (like hardware bans) which stops abusers and hackers (as other free-to-play games have proven). The limitation on which numbers you can use only makes it worse.
And this sms related announcement came really late, especially after how people bought the season pass. Not to mention players who bought cosmetics in OW1 who are basically not getting their money’s worth, since OW2 is replacing OW1.
2 Likes
They haven’t listened to the players in 6 years. I doubt they’ll suddenly begin listening now.
1 Like
They may if this causes legal issues/starts refunds–didn’t the SMS protection announcement come like a week ago? I’m pretty sure a lot of people already bought WP editions then found out their numbers don’t work
3 Likes
It was actually posted on the watchpoint pack underneath somewhere saying a number is needed in order to play and some people claim they knew about this as far back as June (just rumors though) however the issue with this though is that while it states you need a phone number to play, it never specifies what type of number is needed.
It doesn’t say “Post Paid numbers only” or which providers are nessecary along with what is or isn’t allowed etc. so anybody who just plays OW for OW and that’s it will likley have no clue about adding phone numbers to their account because it was never needed to begin with so technically yes, for most, it came a week ago when they had announced the Defense Matrix thing.
Most don’t even read those kinds of fine print texts because nobody mostly expects it and even if they say did they probably had just shrugged it off with a “oh okay, just a phone number? Whatever, no prob” kind of mentality.
While a lot of others (who aren’t active on these forums) would not have known about these rumors talking about possibly needing a number back in June because people do other things in their life, these issues just arose now because they were 1) Just rumors and 2) Something like this was never needed before for OW so nobody thinks otherwise.
At least, this is what I think and how I feel about it.
5 Likes
There was no mention of SMS protection when it was announced that OW2 would carry over the OW1 skins.
I bought the underpopulated OW skins because they’re available in OW2.
2 Likes
explain how warzone overtook OW1 in term of playerbase ? they got like bigger one than us for sure and their game require phone number too
This is a normal reaction.
They suddenly deactivate the account.
We are reckless to spend more money and time than necessary on that account.
1 Like
Time will tell.
If sales slump, actions will be taken. Just bide your time.
I mean the announcement wasn’t very public AND they didn’t specify which numbers you needed.
And OW2 was presented as a “new version” of OW1 (as they are shutting down OW1), and I think it’s pretty natural that people thought OW1 practices (like not having to provide a number) would stay that way
2 Likes
I really hope they fix this because too many are having issues with this. But sadly, you are correct - all we can do is wait.