Overwatch 2 Requirement Makes the Game Too Expensive for Some Players

By Marc Deschamps

Overwatch 2 released yesterday, and Blizzard has taken several steps to reduce the chances of cheaters ruining the game. As revealed last week, the game now requires that all users have a phone number registered to their Battle.net account. Since a number can only be tied to one account, the theory is that it would act as a barrier that prevents bad actors from simply making a new account after they've been banned. Unfortunately, some Overwatch fans have discovered that pre-paid phone numbers are not accepted by Blizzard, meaning they would have to sign-up for a monthly plan if they want to play.

Multiple Overwatch fans have brought this issue up on the game's subreddit, and some of those posts were shared on Twitter by @lackingsaint. Two of those posts can be found in the Tweet embedded below.

Blizzard's avoidance of pre-paid phones was likely an attempt to prevent players from simply buying a new pre-paid phone in order to side-step a ban. However, the policy instead is acting as a pay wall, preventing anyone from playing Overwatch 2 if they can't afford a monthly phone plan. As Reddit user RLmclovin states "Blizzard is the first company to make me feel too poor to play a game."

The irony of course is that Overwatch 2 is supposed to be a free-to-play game, unlike its predecessor. However, by implementing this policy, Blizzard has now made it much more expensive than it ever was to play the original Overwatch. It's quite sad for those that didn't have to deal with this issue with the previous game, and newcomers that were excited to try the series for the first time. Hopefully Blizzard will make some changes to the policy so players aren't left out.

Overwatch 2 is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

How do you feel about this requirement for Overwatch 2? Do you think Blizzard is pricing out players? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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