Pre-paid phone numbers may not work.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Activision Blizzard seems to be very keen on ensuring their potential players have mobile phones. You guys all have phones, right? When Overwatch 2 launched just last week, Blizzard had a policy in place right from the get-go that you needed a cellphone in order to play the game. The catch there was that this ruled out those using pre-paid phones.

For a lot of people, this meant that they were now unable to play the game (Overwatch) that they may have previously paid for and been playing just fine prior to the launch of Overwatch 2. Blizzard eventually walked this back, at least for the time being, as they work on other solutions to the whole pre-paid cellphone issue. As it currently stands (at the time of posting), Blizzard removed the cellphone requirement on Overwatch accounts made prior to June 9, 2021. New accounts will still need to have this SMS Protect requirement.

Now here comes Activision Blizzard once again with the whole cellphone requirement. This time it will be for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. A new post on the Blizzard Support pages say that players will need to register a phone number to play certain titles. This includes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, newly created Overwatch 2 accounts, and newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts.

Activision Blizzard notes that they are making phone numbers a requirement in an effort to "keep players accountable for their actions and, in turn, reduces toxicity and cheating."

Another page on the Blizzard Support site flatly says that "mobile phones with pre-paid plans may not work with the phone notification service."

The requirement of needing a non-pre-paid cellphone also extends to the Steam release of Modern Warfare 2. In the fine print, below the System Requirements section on the Steam page, players can find the following line: "A mobile phone number must be linked to your Steam Account to play Modern Warfare® II."

If you do have a pre-paid cellphone plan and want to play Modern Warfare 2, you very well could be SOL on this unless Activision Blizzard walks back the requirement.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is expected to be released on October 28, 2022. Those that pre-purchase any edition will get access to the single player campaign a week ahead of time.