Looks like only Modern Warfare 2 players on PC need a phone number to play the shooter

Activision has detailed how it will use an SMS verification system as a requirement to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

According to the company, players must own a text-enabled mobile phone number to play the game - but only on PC.

Earlier this week it was reported that Modern Warfare 2 would require players to register a phone number to play the game. It was also noted a pre-paid or VOIP number might not work with the system. At the time, it wasn't specified that the requirement was only for PC players, leaving many players concerned.

In a blog post on the matter, Activision said that existing Warzone players who previously verified their account would not be required to provide any additional information to access Modern Warfare 2 or Warzone 2.0. The policy will work the same as it did for Warzone players on Battle.net when the company implemented the SMS system in 2020. It will be a requirement for Steam users, too.

"SMS verification is critical to our anti-cheat enforcement efforts, tackling illicit account creation at its source," reads the post. "This helps our security team to maintain both account and game security to provide a safe, fair, and fun gaming experience for all our players.

"In August 2022, we updated the SMS policy for new players of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), requiring a text-enabled mobile phone number to play the game. Before this change, new accounts in Modern Warfare could access Warzone without an SMS security check. As the illicit account market adjusted to our security enforcement, RICOCHET started seeing more cheaters attempt to access Warzone from Modern Warfare to bypass the SMS policy, so the security team recommended the update to combat the illicit account market further."

The company assures that the SMS requirement for game access is used only for security purposes and does not use the data for marketing purposes.

Elsewhere in the post, in preparation for the beta, Team RICOCHET banned over 60,000 "illicit accounts," and during the beta more than 20,000 bans were handed down. The team found that 72% of players detected to be cheating were acted on before they ever played a single match. For those that were able to play normally, the systems were able to detect and remove them from the ecosystem within five matches played.

During the beta, a small number of players reported a beta crashing bug was causing their accounts to be permanently banned. Since the game cannot trigger a ban the issue was investigated, and the security and data engineers confirmed there was not a possible bug that would have allowed this to happen during the beta.

However, there was one system that unjustly impacted players by kicking them out of matches for friendly fire. The issue only persisted "for a short period on Sunday" before being resolved. This particular issue has been addressed for launch.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 releases for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on October 28.