EA and PopCap have soft launched a new Plants Vs Zombies game, subtitled Welcome to Zomburbia.
It is out now on iOS and Android in the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Philippines. EA said the game is “near-launch” and a worldwide release will come “later this year”.
The third mainline game in the tower defence series adds a new world-building meta into the gameplay as well as new story elements.
Before today’s announcement, we were able to ask EA’s PvZ3 game lead Alex McGregor a few questions about why the series is returning, EA’s soft launch strategy and why it has added a puzzle-and decorate-style meta to the new game.
It’s been years since the last PVZ game, why is it coming back now, in 2024, in a market that’s become much tougher to launch games in?
Even today, the Plants vs. Zombies franchise enjoys very healthy install and DAU volumes, so we might argue that the game isn’t coming back because it never went away! As for Plants vs Zombies 3, we simply feel we have the right direction for the franchise and the right model for the game, at the right time. Add in some solid test market data backing that, and we believe that now is the perfect time to launch the next Plants vs. Zombies game for fans, and to introduce the IP to newer generations of players.
Can you tell us about the game’s development? How long has it been in the works, what is the rough size of the dev team at PopCap, and if there are any notable staff from the original games on the team?
This iteration of the game has been in development since 2020. Over the course of the last few years, we’ve built a fantastic core team of about 30 people, many of whom are fans themselves. We have poured our hearts and souls into making the game feel fresh and new, while respecting and building on the rich history of the Plants vs. Zombies universe.
What’s the thinking behind the soft launch strategy, and how long do you think it will take for the game to go global? I have noticed other PVZ titles enter soft launch but not go global, what does success look like for this soft launch?
Our development started by taking the learnings from those previous launches, and combined that with research and speaking to our active community to create, refine and validate our direction, leading to the game we have today. We wanted to return to the pure fun and simplicity of the first game by creating something that everyone can enjoy.
After seeing success in limited market tests, we think we’ve achieved that, and soft launch is the next natural step for Plants vs. Zombies 3. We have a lot of new features that we’re excited for players to experience while in soft launch, and the team is looking forward to incorporating player feedback to create a game that is both fun and achieves our target KPIs. Based on that, we could go global sometime this year.
It looks like the new decoration meta is inspired by other puzzle-and-decorate games, why do you feel this is the right way to take the series forward?
Looking back, Plants vs. Zombies has always been a genre-bending franchise, and when we started looking at this model and how it might work for our game, it was actually quite a natural fit. The Plants vs. Zombies universe is so rich, filled with tons of zany characters and lore, much of which exists completely outside of the games themselves.
For Plants vs. Zombies 3, we wanted to bridge that gap and bring deep story and lore to life in a Plants vs. Zombies mobile game for the very first time. This model allows us to provide players with an even greater sense of progression as we take them on an engaging narrative-driven adventure to accompany their gameplay experience. The restorative aspect, which ties directly into the narrative, also provides an opportunity for players to express themselves through how they choose to rebuild Neighborville along the way.
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PvZ 3’s launch this year marks EA’s first major mobile launch for some time. The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle Earth, a game similar to the very successful Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, dropped globally in May 2023 but has yet to make much of an impact. More recently, EA-owned publisher Glu announced that it would be closing its trailblazing Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game.
Just over a year ago, EA announced it would be pulling the plug on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, as well as closing the latter’s developer, Industrial Toys. A few months later, we discussed why EA cancelled Battlefield Mobile with Industrial Toys (and Bungie) cofounder Alex Seropian.
