Activision Clears Up Questions About Modern Warfare 2's Phone Requirements

Activision Blizzard's highly anticipated "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" arrives on October 28. Not only will "Modern Warfare 2" bring new gameplay innovations and a new campaign, but it will also usher in a new age of "Call of Duty: Warzone" with "Warzone 2.0." But as the release date closes in, there are a few things that have players worried about the upcoming entry. One of the biggest worries of players arose after discovering that "Modern Warfare 2" will require gamers to connect a phone number to play online.

Requiring a linked phone number to play online is something Activision Blizzard recently did with "Overwatch 2." But players were not happy, as it meant a sizable number of players would not be able to jump from "Overwatch" to "Overwatch 2." Specifically, Activision Blizzard gated players with prepaid phones or incompatible service providers out of playing the game. Not to mention young gamers that don't have access to a phone.

In response, Activision Blizzard removed most players' SMS protection requirement in "Overwatch 2." Some may wonder if Activision Blizzard will do the same with its upcoming "Modern Warfare 2." Recently, Activision Blizzard spoke about that very issue, answering some questions about how the controversial feature will work.

On October 13, the development team announced a few exciting things players can look forward to in "Modern Warfare 2" via a "Call of Duty" blog post. The first thing mentioned was a new system to combat "Modern Warfare 2" and "Warzone 2.0" cheaters. In addition, the team cleared up some questions about the SMS security policy that worried players.

The team doubled down by stating that it doesn't plan to remove SMS verification from "Modern Warfare 2" or "Warzone 2.0," as it argues it is critical to combating cheaters. However, it will only be a requirement for PC players, not console players. In the case of "Warzone 2.0" on PC, it is easy to see why SMS verification will be required, as if a player gets banned from "Warzone 2.0," they can easily just make another account on the free-to-play game — and the system is already in place for "Warzone" as of 2020.

The blog post then explained why the SMS verification will be in place for "Modern Warfare 2" on PC. The team said that previously, players bypassed the verification by logging onto "Warzone" via "Modern Warfare." And that having the requirement for "Modern Warfare 2" will make Warzone 2.0" more secure. Players will have to wait and see if this new feature will reduce the number of cheaters in the game.