Gamers who did not take kindly to Overwatch 2‘s “SMS Protect” will be disappointed to know that Infinity Ward has confirmed rumors of Modern Warfare 2’s SMS verification requirement. The requirement seems to be limited to the PC version of the game, raising further concerns about the developer’s treatment of Call of Duty fans on PC.
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Earlier this week, we reported that a Battle.net support page was updated to indicate that access to Modern Warfare 2 would be locked behind SMS verification in a similar fashion to Overwatch 2. While Blizzard partially rolled the “SMS Protect” measure back following player outrage, Infinity Ward has doubled down on the measure instead. But here’s the good news: it’s now confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 SMS verification will only be required on PC! Here’s what Activision said about it via the press release:
SMS verification is a critical tool to anti-cheat enforcement efforts, as it will tackle illicit account creation at its source. As such, a text-enabled phone number is required to play Modern Warfare II on PC.
That said, existing Call of Duty: Warzone players who have previously verified their account will not be required to provide any additional information to access Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0. Also, the SMS policy for Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 on Battle.net is the same as the requirement for Call of Duty: Warzone on PC, which was implemented back in May 2020. A mobile phone number must be linked to your Steam Account to play Modern Warfare II on that platform.
Interestingly, no mention was made of the console versions of the game, or if the requirement would also be extended to those versions. Of course, it’s widely know that cheating and whatnot is way more rampant compared to consoles given the platform’s open nature,
The company has also confirmed that the Ricochet anti-cheat system and its PC kernel-level driver will launch “day-and-date” with the release of both Modern Warfare 2 on October 28 and Warzone 2.0 on November 16.
Modern Warfare 2 is set to deploy October 28 on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Those who pre-order will be able to play the campaign a week early.