Saying that in the past few months Activision-Blizzard has been through rough patches in terms of PR disasters may be underselling it. Recently there’s been a controversy in the gaming sphere because of the news of Phone numbers being a requirement to play Overwatch 2. The game under Blizzard Entertainment, but we all know that Blizzard and Activision merged way back in 2008 so some people worried if this is a start to a trend in the company. Those worries were warranted since now news of Activision confirming the phone requirement for Modern Warfare 2 as well!
Modern Warfare 2 Phone Requirement: Activision Confirmed That There Will Be One
Requirement of phone numbers might be a shock to the people in the west, but in the east, there have been times where games required these kinds of things. The most popular games in Korea for example need not only your phone number but also one’s KSSN, an informal term for Korea’s Resident Registration Number. That is because of the various laws in Korea like The Cyber Defamation Law which, for brevity’s sake, is beyond the scope of this article. It’s not also limited in Korea since in China as well this is pretty common.
Of course, people in the west don’t usually have that because of a difference of both laws and culture, but now Activision-Blizzard is pushing for something like this and it’s pissing people off and we understand why. Not only do you need a phone number to play but also a post-paid number to do so which often isn’t economical for people especially in 3rd world countries.
Why The Phone Numbers?
Blizzard called it “SMS Protect” and it’s their way of cutting down on smurf accounts and toxic behavior in the community. They’re hoping that adding an extra layer to get a new account will deter people from making smurf accounts and will lower the possibility of toxicity because of the risk of being banned.
Recently they dialed things back for the requirement and limited the post-paid number requirement to only those who have new accounts and have never played overwatch before but the damage is already done.
Many players are disappointed in this new direction that Activision-Blizzard is pushing for and it only serves to damage their reputation further in a long list of controversies the company seemly keeps on walking on. Only time will tell if this is a hill they’re going to die on or if they’ll pull it back.
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