About

Overwatch 2 Will Require… refers to a series of memes that parody the news of Overwatch 2 recording voice chat and requiring a phone number to play. In such memes, Overwatch 2 is depicted as enforcing ridiculous demands on its players, such as a Mandatory Cock Inspection.

Origin

On September 27th, 2022, gaming websites Game Rant^[1] and PC Gamer^[2] published news articles about the upcoming multiplayer video game Overwatch 2. The Game Rant article covered Overwatch 2 recording voice chat and requiring a phone number to play, while the PC Gamer article reported that players new to Overwatch will have to unlock old heroes.

On September 27th, Twitter^[3] user @PatStaresAt shared a snippet of the PC Gamer article, commenting, "Holy shit this fucking game." The post gained over 3,400 retweets and 54,600 likes in four days (shown below, left). In the comments to the tweet, Twitter^[4] user @bugliker shared a snippet of the Game Rant article (shown below, center), with the post garnering over 320 retweets and 7,600 likes in that period. Later that day, Twitter^[5] user @YokaiRiderVT shared both snippets, with their tweet receiving over 4,000 retweets and 45,700 likes in four days (shown below, right).

On September 28th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @WarnTV posted an edited version of the Game Rant snippet, with the title altered to "Overwatch 2 Introduces Mandatory Cock Inspection." The post gained over 5,200 retweets and 56,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Spread

Starting on that day, September 28th, 2022, more users shared parodies based on the snippet, many created through editing the headline text with the "Inspect Element" tool on web browsers such as Chrome. For example, on September 28th, Twitter^[7] user @NyanSox posted a meme that gained over 120 retweets and 2,600 likes in three days (shown below, left). Later that day, Twitter^[8] user @ToTouchAnEmu posted a version that received over 2,400 retweets and 22,500 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Many versions posted on Twitter received further spread through reposts on Facebook, Reddit and other sites in the following days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References