Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 May Require a Phone Number to Play

gamerant.com:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may have the controversial «SMS Protect» feature found in Overwatch 2. The latter has been out for near a week as of this writing, and its launch has been troubled to say the least. Among a plethora of server issues and bugs in Overwatch 2 is its requirement that players need a phone number to play. This feature is meant to prevent smurfing and other forms of cheating, but it also denies access to players the world over.

Specifically, this is becauseOverwatch 2won't allow prepaid phone numbers. On the one hand, it makes sense because of burner phones, but this denies access to far more players than those who would use burner phones. Some no-contract providers who still bill regularly fall under «prepaid» such as Cricket Wireless, while other providers of that exact same nature have reportedly worked. Furthermore, if the phone number someone owns has EVER been a prepaid number, it can prevent users from accessing the game. It's not consistent, it's controversial, it prevents access to low-income players (who would benefit the most from Overwatch 2 going «free-to-play»), and it seems it's coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

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As first spotted by VGC, Language on Battle.net states that «Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, newly created Overwatch 2 accounts, and newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts require a phone number.» It further clarifies that messaging apps like iMessages, WhatsApp, prepaid phone numbers, and VoIP will not work, putting Modern Warfare 2 into the same basket as Overwatch 2. It should be noted that, if anyone is playing both (or intending to), then obviously their number may be safe or perhaps they