Blizzard Drops Phone Number Requirement As Overwatch 2 Launch Woes Continue

For some reason, they dropped Mouse & Keyboard support on PS5. Even if there’s crossplay, how am I supposed to compete together with my PC friends in PC lobbies? So annoying. COD or Fortnite could do the crossplay right, I do not understand why not to add input option for PS5 players - this way it is unplayable for me.

This game seems like another death throe of Blizzard. They've been bleeding out for a long time now. Maybe Diablo 4 can show a bit of that old Blizzard magic but since pretty much all the original staff have left, it's hard to imagine.

phone number is redundant its all email and 2 point now... then theres this password free option with the security dongle. but seriously should of kept the old game up and running people no like change lol

@Mad001 most people aren't going to get a new phone number after being banned for cheating in a game. A new email though? That's easy.

Fools are those, who blindly gives phone number to random company. You can already give them your Credit Card PIN and the Scum scenario is complete...

@Milktastrophe i wasn't talking about cheating 🤣 seriously why no one should go online to cheat. cheat all you want offline against the computer. once i cleared the game i cheat on the pc version trainers mods on the hardest level some fun can be had throughout the mass effect trilogy like that lol ( the legendary edition has started showing more stuff)
phone numbers can be spoofed never trust a random page online double check those, i was talking about keeping ourselves right 👍

Seeing as people (including a lot of product managers and developers who implement them, including at institutions that should know better like banks) don't seem to get the point of multifactor authentication, and I've spent time working on security focused systems, here's the deal:

A factor can be:

• Something you know (like a username or password)
• Something you are (think biometrics like face recognition, fingerprints, iris scans)
• Something you have (your phone, a ubikey, a smart card)
• Somewhere you are (this could be from GPS or a combination of nearby access points, or a whitelisted IP address range associated with a known site)

2-factor authentication requires that you use information from two of these categories (multifactor authentication requires at least two, but up to all 4, depending on configuration).

An email address only be verifies that you know the credentials to access that email address, so doesn't provide any additional factors on top of a user name or password.

SMS verification is intended to verify that you have possession of the SIM card associated with that phone number, however due to numerous issues that allow a SIM to be cloned or for your SMS inbox to otherwise be accessed (I can get into mine by logging into my provider's website) it is also not any better than a username and password.

An obvious second factor from my point of view would be the primary console or PC that you use to access your account (probably more specifically the MAC Address of your primary network interface, or a motherboard serial number, something like that). You nominate hardware for your account, and that hardware needs to be used to generate an access code to add other hardware to your account. You can move which is your primary device, but only if your account is in good standing, and you can only have any one device associated with any one account at a time. It gets inconvenient if you share a console, although you could maybe have sub accounts where any one account cheating bans the whole group, but it means cheaters rapidly run out of devices to cheat on unless they keep buying new hardware.

I haven't managed to get a single second of the game since launch day. I've tried every day and either an error or a queue of 599 people that never goes down...

@Majk_SVK is using a controller vs PC players really that bad ? i’m thinking about using my ps5 controller on my PC and try it myself because i can’t do keyboard and mouse

I never played Overwatch 1. Had zero interest in our. I don't really like the free-to-play model, or buying cosmetics for real money. I'm old school, that stuff used to be included as bonuses for finishing the game

@MattBoothDev Same here buy a game and play and unlock stuff. But that will never return kids already dont know anything else.

@nomither6 for me as a keyboard and mouse player since the 90s the difference isn't even funny, although gyro aiming in Deathloop helped me get about halfway there

I had a feeling the phone idea wasn't going to turn out well the moment I heard about it. I get the idea behind it with combating cheaters but it was just bad optics asking for a phone number to play a game.

Even though I don't play Overwatch it has been an interesting saga to watch unfold from the sidelines!

Phone number to play a game? Ahaha.. ok now

While I'm glad they've retracted it for people who played in the last year, I'm concerned for folks that 1) played before the crossplay June date and 2) never played at all will still be required to provide their number. If they have prepaid, it may still be problematic and bar them from participating.

Hope they continue fixing it, as I was long forward to this game.

@djlard I don't mind Sony having it for the 2 Step thing to protect my account but i'm sure as hell not giving Blizzard my number.

Yesterday was a 20 mins wait then had many games without any issues.
Today there’s no wait and games don’t have an issue.
There x box series x but sure it’s the same on all platforms (I hope)

@kyleforrester87 the phone part affects more clean players than cheats.

in UK many use giffgaff... but thats prepaid, so issues

Blizzard seems to be a sinking ship, just let them drown in their own greed.

@theheadofabroom damn , gonna just have to practice in quick play then . learning keyboard and mouse for me is like learning piano !

@Grimwood eh , i get dozens of scam calls a day so my number is already compromised

@nomither6 to be fair it's the mouse that's a serious advantage for aiming, the keyboard is just its natural pairing. I'd recommend using something like Portal or Superhead to get your eye in before playing more time critical competitive stuff. You'll likely end up slowly increasing mouse sensitivity as you build the instinct for "when my arm/wrist/fingers move like this, it moves my viewport like that" until it becomes something you no longer have to think about.

@Grimwood the reason is that it's a lowest common denominator for MFA, with all the issues I mentioned in my post. Not to mention the fact that they're abusing MFA for a purpose it wasn't designed for.

@theheadofabroom i think i can actually manage mouse , it’s the keyboard mapping that kills me

@nomither6 if it's too much then I'm sure mouse and controller would work, through the magic of the Steam Controller Overlay?

I played ow1 for years but 2 looks just like ow1 the graphics look the same exactly for a game that's spent this much time and rnd . They could have just released these small amount of new characters amd maps as dlc. I'm glad it's free to play because it's not worth buying. Nothing new to the table at all looks like it was made for ps4 at the 2nd span of its life cycle.