Video game series
| Plants vs. Zombies | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) |
|
| Developer(s) | PopCap Games |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Creator(s) | George Fan |
| Artist(s) | Rich Werner |
| Writer(s) | Stephen Notley |
| Composer(s) | Laura Shigihara |
| Platform(s) | |
| First release | Plants vs. Zombies May 5, 2009 |
| Latest release | Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia January 17, 2024 (soft launch) |
Plants vs. Zombies is a video game franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombie invasion, led by Dr. Edgar George Zomboss. The first game, Plants vs. Zombies (2009), was developed and released by PopCap before its acquisition by EA. After PopCap Games's acquisition, EA expanded the game into a franchise with games on many different platforms, including a comic book series written by Paul Tobin and published by Dark Horse Comics.
The series has a variety of game genres. The original game and its sequels Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, Plants vs. Zombies 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 3 are tower defense games where the player has to use plants with different abilities to defend against a zombie invasion. The spin-off Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and its sequels are third-person shooters where the player can play as either the plants or zombies in multiplayer (and beginning in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, single player) matches. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a digital collectable card game with characters from previous installments.
History
Main series
On April 1, 2009, PopCap released a music video for the song "Zombies on Your Lawn" by Laura Shigihara to promote Plants vs. Zombies, also included at the game's conclusion. A PopCap spokesperson, Garth Chouteau, revealed in an IGN interview that Plants vs. Zombies would be released soon on PC and Mac. On April 22, 2009, PopCap released an official game trailer of Plants vs. Zombies on YouTube. During the promotion of Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap released a demo version of the game that could be played for thirty minutes. Plants vs. Zombies was officially released on May 5, 2009, for PC and Mac, by 2013 switching from a $2.99 gameplay cost to free-to-play on iOS and Android devices. Critics on mobile devices give the game an average of 4.3-4.8 star ratings. From 2011 to 2014, the first game was adapted and expanded to the Chinese market as Plants vs. Zombies Social Edition, Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition, Plants vs. Zombies: China Edition, Plants vs. Zombies: Endless Edition, Plants vs. Zombies: Dragon Palace Edition, and Plants vs. Zombies: Journey to the West.
PopCap Games and its assets were bought by EA on July 12, 2011, for 750 million US dollars. Fifty employees were laid off in the Seattle studio of PopCap Games on August 21, 2012, to mark a switch of focus to mobile and social gaming.
On August 20, 2012, PopCap announced that they were working on a sequel to Plants vs. Zombies. Its release date would be set at late spring of 2013. However, the game's status was in doubt shortly after the announcement when the company went through a period of layoffs.
In May 2013, PopCap Games released a trailer revealing a sequel to the first game, titled Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. The game was soft-launched for the iOS in Australia and New Zealand on July 10, 2013, and was officially released on August 14, 2013, as a freemium title. The game featured new locations and plants along with the addition of plant food, a power-up that can be used to enhance a plant for a short period and can either be bought using in-game currency or acquired by defeating zombies that are glowing green. There are four other power-ups in the game, all of which are bought with coins, the in-game currency. Along with these new add ons, the game continues to make updates from time to time. According to EA News, the Arena and Penny's Pursuit updates, which are different game modes within the game, have been some of their latest major updates, aside from all the mini add ons.
In July 2019, EA announced Plants vs. Zombies 3, another free-to-play mobile title in the series. It was launched in a pre-alpha state for Android in July 2019. The game soft-launched in February 2020 in the Philippines, Romania, and Ireland. It was then made unavailable in October 2020, becoming unplayable in November 2020. EA has plans to release an improved version of the game in the future. On September 7, 2021, Plants vs. Zombies 3 was soft-launched again with substantial changes, such as two-dimensional graphics and the return of the Sunflower as a plantable plant, having the same purpose in the previous iterations. On January 17, 2024, Plants vs. Zombies 3 was soft launched again, this time as Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia in select regions, adapting storylines and characters from the Plants vs. Zombies comic book series (written by Paul Tobin, illustrated by Ron Chan, and published by Dark Horse Comics to the app Plants vs. Zombies Comics, as well as physically), including Tugboat the Zombie, Nate Timely, and Patrice Blazing.
Spin-offs
A spin-off called Plants vs. Zombies Adventures was announced in March 2013 and was released on May 20, 2013 on Facebook. The game added new locations and new plants. It also had a gameplay feature in which the player had a limited amount of plants and had to grow more plants at an in-game farm. In July 2014, it was announced that Plants vs. Zombies Adventures would close on October 12, 2014.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was announced at E3 2013 as a multiplayer third-person shooter game made for PC and consoles. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was released on February 25, 2014, in North America and on February 27, 2014, in Europe. A sequel, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, was teased in June 2015 and was officially announced at E3 2015. The game was released on February 23, 2016. On March 10, 2016, PopCap announced Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, a digital collectible card game in the style of tower defense. It was soft released to certain countries on the same day, and was fully released internationally on October 18, 2016.
In August 2019, a closed beta of a sequel to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 codenamed "Picnic" was made available to select players through invites. On September 4, 2019, EA announced the sequel's title; Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. It was released in an early access state that same date. The game was fully released on October 18, 2019.
A cancelled single player Plants vs. Zombies game had been in the works within EA from about 2015 to 2017. Known as "Project Hot Tub" in reference to Hot Tub Time Machine, the game was to have been an action game along the lines of the Uncharted series but maintaining its family-friendly nature, featuring two teenage siblings that travelled through time to fight zombies. The game was being developed by PopCap Vancouver. While a vertical slice of the game had been shown off to EA executives in 2017, EA opted to cancel the project to pull in more resources to Visceral Games to support their work on the Star Wars game under the name Project Ragtag, which had been languishing for several years. Despite this, EA cancelled Project Ragtag in October 2017, shutting down Visceral Games, and the former PopCap Vancouver team was relocated across other EA studios.
Other media
Comics
Since July 2013, Dark Horse Comics has published a Plants vs. Zombies ongoing comic book series, following teenagers Nate Timely and Patrice Blazing as they protect Neighborville from the zombie armies of Dr. Edgar Zomboss, with the help of Patrice's uncle, David "Crazy Dave" Blazing, and his own legion of genetically-modified sentient plants, accessible via the app Plants vs. Zombies Comics. Elements and characters from the comic book series were later adapted to the franchise's video game instalments, and vice-versa, in particular Plants vs. Zombies 3.
Film
In April 2022, Plants vs. Zombies artist and character co-creator Rich Werner revealed that a Plants vs. Zombies animated feature film had been fully pitched at DreamWorks Animation, with "a full script reading and a room full of concept art" by Peter Zaslav, with Werner listing out what the intended plot of the film had been in an interview that May.
References
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PC and Mac initially, with other platforms under consideration.
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- "A New Vision for PVZ 3 Has Taken Root!". September 7, 2021.
- Chan, Ron (January 19, 2024). "OMG! Looks like Patrice Blazing, the character @PaulTobin and I created for the Plants vs. Zombies comics published by @DarkHorseComics, has made her way into the actual games!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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- The Art of Plants vs. Zombies. Dark Horse Comics, 2013.
- Werner, Rich (April 24, 2022). "Sorry bro. So lame!! I was at Dreamworks for a pitch of an animated movie of Plants VS Zombies. Alas. Nothing came of it :(" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Zaslav, Peter (May 1, 2022). "Plants vs. Zombies Concept Art — Additional Animation Projects — Peter Zaslav". Peter Zaslav. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
- Werner, Rich (April 24, 2022). "There was a full script reading and a room full of concept art. Was wild" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Morales, Wilson (May 1, 2022). The Plot of the Cancelled Plants vs. Zombies Movie is Revealed to Me!! | Interview. La Granja. Retrieved May 1, 2022 – via YouTube.
When the existence of the film became known, I contacted Rich Werner, who presented it to DreamWorks. This is what he told me.
External links
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| A subsidiary of Electronic Arts | |||||||
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