Overwatch 2 Launch Issues Still Being Fixed, SMS Protect Removed For Old Players

Overwatch 2’s launch earlier this week was fraught with serious issues ranging from multiple DDOS attacks, drops and connection problems, long queues, missing items, locked heroes, and a reportedly broken console account linking system, all of which are still in the process of being fixed.

According to Blizzard, the root cause of the stability issues is the sheer number of players waiting to get in. This is causing the player database to overload which in turn causes the login system to get backed up leading to players being dropped from queues or not being able to login at all.

Blizzard reports that the login and queue processes have been improved and should now be more stable and reliable, although it looks like there’s really nothing to be done for the long queues. In fact, they’re actually being throttled to help ease the strain on the player database while the team works on scaling it to try to accommodate more players.

“This feels bad in the short-term,” Blizzard said, “but once it’s done, will greatly improve the experience for players across multiple fronts moving forward.” The studio says that they’re also working on another server update that should help reduce the instances of players being booted out of the game should they manage to get in.

As for the missing items and locked heroes, Blizzard says that roughly half of the reported cases were a result of players failing to complete the account merging process. For the other half, it’s simply taking longer than expected for items and heroes from the original game to be transferred to Overwatch 2. “In all cases, no player data has been wiped or lost,” assured the studio. A client-side fix for the issue will be rolled out next week.

Finally, Blizzard has also made some concessions with regard to Overwatch 2’s SMS-based two-factor authentication system. When it first came out, the game’s SMS Protect system effectively blocked out players without phones or who were using prepaid lines. Starting today, previous Overwatch players with connected Battle.net accounts will no longer be required to provide a phone number to play. This includes all players who’ve played since June 9, 2021.