Overwatch 2: Blizzard Removes SMS Protect for Existing Battle.net Accounts as it Continues to Battle DDoS Attacks and Other Launch Issues

Overwatch 2 has had a rocky launch date due to constant DDoS attacks on their server. This caused long queues and wait time for players if they even managed to get into the game, others were not even able to log in to Overwatch 2. There were a lot of other issues such as bugs and glitches that were being faced by the players, which is normal for launch day. The team is working hard to figure out the cause of these issues and resolve them at the earliest.

The developers have posted a launch status update on their forum, enlisting all the launch issues and how they are combatting them. The first issue that has caused a lot of problems is the SMS protect feature that comes with the new Defense Matrix. Due to this feature not working as intended, many players were not able to get into the game because of that. The developers have made the decision to remove the feature for existing battle.net account holders that have played since June 9, 2021. This change will go live on October 7, 2022.

We want to provide an update on what we have been doing behind the scenes to get more players into #Overwatch2 and make your play experience smoother.

Read more here https://t.co/YmTcxm3Zh0

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 6, 2022

The next set of issues were related to the game stability, where players faced very long queues, server crashes and other such problems. They have understood that this issue was due to a complicated queuing process that involved the formation of two queues, one from battle.net and the other through the game. They have simplified this process so that players only experience one queue before entering the game. They have also a patched the server to achieve increased login reliability.

Another issue that they are faced with, which most games face of the first day is the influx of large number of players. This has overloaded the playerbase and has resulted in dropping certain players from queues. They are in the process of adding nodes that will ease the playerbase, but this process is being done slowly as the game is already under a decent amount of stress. The next issue is with account merge feature, some console players are facing it due to a bug in the system, which is being worked on. Others are not able to see their items being transferred over from the previous title.

This issue is not to be worries about as no player data will be wiped or lost as stated by the developers. They have a client-side fix for this issue, but the players will have to wait for a week for it to be deployed. Another issue that existing players were facing was incorrectly locked heroes and items. Most of them could resolve it simply by logging in, other that are still facing this issue can open a support ticket to provide more information to Blizzard. All of these issues were amplified due to the DDoS attacks, as reported the game has not received any further attacks to the system.