Blizzard caught quite a lot of heat when it revealed that Overwatch 2 will feature SMS Protect, which means that you need to connect your phone number to your Battle.net account to play the shooter sequel. It caused a stir because it meant that you needed a fully paid phone to access the game, as prepaids were not allowed. Blizzard decided after a short while to roll back on this, however Activision isn't treating this as a learning opportunity at all.
And this is because in a Phone Notifications post on Battle.net, it's noted that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II will also use SMS Protect and will require a connected phone to play - and no, this does not include prepaids.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, newly created Overwatch 2 accounts, and newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts require a phone number," said Activision.
The post continued by adding that "Messaging apps like iMessage (iOS) or WhatsApp (iOS, Android) are not supported", and neither are "Mobile phones with prepaid plans may not work with the phone notification service", or "Phone notifications cannot be used with Voice over IP (VoIP), and VoIP numbers that are transferred to a local provider are not eligible for the service."
The good news is that if you've played Overwatch 2 and connected a phone number, you should already be covered when Modern Warfare II arrives on October 28.