Social Credit System: 'Overwatch 2' Game Will Require Phone Number, Record Voice Chat

Gaming giant Blizzard’s new Overwatch 2 game will reportedly collect voice chat recordings from some players and require players to attach a phone number to their account. It’s the latest step from a high tech company building towards a China-style social credit system.

Reclaim The Net reports that the upcoming First-person shooter Overwatch 2 from Blizzard Entertainment will collect voice chat recordings from players and require gamers to attach a phone number to their account to “protect the integrity of gameplay and promote positive behavior.”

Blizzard is calling this a “Defense Matrix” and will apply to all players from October 4 when the game enters early access. As part of this Defense Matrix, when a player is reported by another player, their voice chat will be recorded and transcribed through a speech-to-text program.

BEIJING, CHINA – JULY 01: Chinese students wave party and national flags at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party at Tiananmen Square on July 1, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Once the chat is transcribed, the gaming giant will use its chat review tool to review the chat for “disruptive behavior.” Blizzard claims that the audio recording will be “quickly deleted” after it has been transcribed and the text will be stored for up to 30 days.

All players will be required to submit a phone number and enroll in “SMS Protect,” a phone number-based two-factor authentication system. The SMS Protect feature is linked to a player’s Battle.net account which stores their other Blizzard games.

Blizzard will also be removing General Chat from Overwatch 2‘s in-game menus as it believes that it “doesn’t serve a productive purpose” and is “an area where frequent disruptive behavior occurred.”

Many users raised concerns over the new voice recording and transcript system being used as tools by mass flaggers. “There’s no human checking the legitimacy of their reports, and their own AI system can’t even pick up on things like slurs in chat,” one user wrote.

“So you can get people to get their voice chat spied on by simply reporting them?” another user wrote. “Wow.”