A new update from COD's Ricochet Anti-Cheat Team (opens in new tab) Team Ricochet Inc. is trying to calm players who are concerned about Modern Warfare 2's SMS verification requirement. Team Ricochet's post confirms that Modern Warfare 2 players on PC will need a "text-enabled mobile phone number" to verify their accounts and play the game, but it's very specific about that PC part: players on consoles won't need to verify themselves via SMS at all.
But even for us PC players, Team Ricochet says the requirement won't affect people who have already verified themselves for Call of Duty: Warzone. The SMS verification system for MW2 (and Warzone 2.0) on Battle.net is the same one that has existed for Call of Duty: Warzone for the past two years, so legacy players won't need to verify again to access it. Unless you're going to play MW2 on Steam, that is. (opens in new tab)i.e. in this case you will need a mobile number linked to your Steam account before you can play.
The update promises that your phone number will only be used for security purposes, and that the game “does not use SMS verification data for marketing purposes.”
The measure is being implemented to combat “illicit account trading” and cheating. For a time, cheaters were able to play Warzone without verifying that they were accessing it through 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which led to the implementation of the SMS verification system in MW1 in August of this year. The team wants to prevent that from happening again.
The entire post seems like an attempt to sidestep the furor that began around Overwatch 2's SMS security system earlier this month. Overwatch 2 was originally going to force new and returning players to verify themselves with a mobile phone number before receiving such a flood of complaints that the policy was eventually scrapped for returning players. (opens in new tab). The game has also drawn criticism for requiring phone numbers from console and PC players, which MW2 is not doing.
COD didn't drop everything people didn't like about Overwatch 2's SMS security system. Prepaid phones are still banned (opens in new tab)which upset many Overwatch fans earlier this month.
We'll see how well COD does when Modern Warfare 2 releases. Steam (opens in new tab) and Battle.net (opens in new tab) on October 28 (with pre-orders getting access to the campaign on October 20). So far it's looking pretty good: the trailers drip with enjoyable COD nonsense (opens in new tab) and the PC's capabilities seem very expansive (opens in new tab). You may have to pick up your phone before you can enjoy them.
