A community manager for Overwatch 2 made a post on the game’s official forums to provide an Overwatch 2 development update. The post describes some of the major issues players have had since the game’s rocky release and how Blizzard plans to fix them.
The necessity of SMS in Overwatch 2 was the initial topic of discussion. In an effort to increase accountability for cheating or bad behavior. Overwatch 2 previously demanded that all players link their phones to their Battle.net accounts. However, Blizzard has nearly eliminated the policy for existing players after complaints of frustration and criticism that the system was unfair.
The post from the community manager says:
“The majority of our console community (players who already had Overwatch connected to their Battle.net account, including any console player who has played since June 9, 2021) no longer need to meet SMS Protect requirements,” Blizzard wrote. “Any PC player who ever played the original Overwatch has this requirement removed.”
Next, the post explained why yesterday’s server shutdowns were necessary: to fix issues with account merges and logins and to upgrade the game’s databases. Blizzard also noted that queue times for logging in were decreased. At the same time, server capacity was increased fourfold due to these maintenance windows. Blizzard has stated that this weekend will be the “biggest test yet” for Overwatch 2. Still, early indicators suggest the servers are in much better shape than before.
Blizzard has reassured players who are having trouble with account merging (such as their Overwatch collections not successfully transferring to Overwatch 2) that their skins and other cosmetics have not been lost and are working to resolve the issue. However, the upgrades made to the database yesterday should make things go faster.
The post then thanks players for their patience before addressing a few other bugs and warning them that matchmaking times may increase.
“We understand that the launch experience has been frustrating for many community members. We deeply appreciate your patience and thank you for your support, and we are laser-focused on improving the Overwatch 2 experience for all players.”
