Plants vs. Zombies Message Board older than one year ago

Games like Bejeweled, Bookworm, Chuzzle, Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies are getting a price drop for 48 hours to raise funds for earthquake-stricken Japan. Partnering with the Red Cross, PopCap will donate all of its revenues from the sale, which begins Saturday March 19 at 12:01 a.m. PDT and ends midnight PDT on Sunday March 20. Get em while they're hot and helping folks. More »

#nintendo Spring is right around the corner, a time when the sun is shining, the flowers blooming, and the undead hordes are hungry for your brains. What perfect timing for the DSiWare version of Plants Vs. Zombies. More »

We'll issue the standard "PopCap Warning" here: One of the developer's severely addictive casual games is spreading to a new platform today, raising the threat level to your productivity to red. If you have your DSi nearby and have a bunch to do, be warned that Plants vs. Zombies is now available on DSiWare.

On WiiWare today, Studio Walljump releases Liight, the puzzler it first announced in 2008. In Liight, you position colored lights and manipulate shadows to ensure that the correct color of light is shining on multiple targets. Find the rest of this week's downloadable Nintendo releases after the break.

#party Last week's PopCap Games party at the Game Developers Conference wasn't just a chance to indulge in Plants Vs. Zombies drinks and snacks while watching flowers cavort around the packed room. It was also a chance to check out some really neat concept art from the game and, you now, talk to people. More »

We're just gonna level with you, folks -- we're scared. Frankly, reading this weekend's CNBC report that Plants vs. Zombies developer PopCap Games is considering an IPO worries us greatly. In so many words, it means that the quirky indie studio could go from private to public, meaning that the company could go from being beholden to itself to being beholden to investors. It also means that PopCap could expand far more rapidly -- and that you could own a piece of the action.

As it stands, the studio pulled in over $100 million last year in revenues and, according to CNBC, is the third largest Facebook developer -- handily besting Disney's user numbers with just two games of its own (versus Disney's 37!). PopCap doesn't deny the possibility of the IPO -- it evenregistered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission -- with company prez David Roberts saying, "I do think we'll be ready internally. Whether the market is ready remains to be seen. It has got to be right for us."

Amazingly, CNBC also asked Roberts if he would comment on the long ago trademarked "Yetitrain" name. He didn't. That name, however, is still amazing. Unfortunately, we may not be hearing anything about it anytime soon. Roberts stated, "Don't hold your breath" when asked about the possibilty of a new franchise being announced this year.

#video Go go dancing sunflowers and pea-shooters caroused at Pop Cap Games' party last night, chasing and being chased by big-headed zombies among party goers. More »

During another long night of shakes and sweats, suffering from what was surely some PopCap Games withdrawal, we pondered the origin story of the electronic pharmaceutical giant's name. We spoke with PopCap co-founder and creative director Jason Kapalka for the answer:

"First thing is that [PopCap Games] wasn't our name originally. The original name was 'Sexy Action Cool,'" Kapalka told us. "Back at university in Edmunton, there was an inside joke because some people had a basement suite with this big movie poster of Antonio Banderas in Desperado. It had this movie quote at the top that said: Sexy. Action. Cool."

"It became an inside joke on how nobody could imagine using Sexy Action Cool in a real sentence. We'd walk around saying, 'You see that movie?' 'Yeah, it was sexy, action, cool.' Or 'That couch? That couch is really sexy, action, cool.'"

The company founders snagged the related URL (which now directs to PoPCap proper) and continued to not think much of the name, at first. As the site grew, however, it became clear that "Sexy Action Cool" was an awkward desitnation for mass-market family games.

Plants vs. Zombots might be the most faithful recreation of a game we've see in LittleBigPlanet 2 so far. The level, created by Foggles, replicates all the sunshine grabbing, sunflower planting and zombie shooting you'd expect from Plants vs. Zombies.

The eternal war for the front lawn wages on.

The seventh annual International Mobile Gaming Awards ceremony has concluded at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and two US-developed titles came away with special honors. Infinity Blade from Epic Games garnered an award for Excellence in Design (we'd have also given it Supreme Overall Awesomeness) while PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies was picked as Best Casual Game.

European winners included Perfect Cell by France's Mobigame (People's Choice Award); FDG's Beyond Ynth (Excellence in Gameplay, Grand Prix Award) and Snowboard Hero by Fishlabs (Excellence in Gameplay, Operators' Choice) from Germany; the UK-made Papa Sangre by Somethin' Else (Most innovative Game); and AR invaders by Israel-based dev Soulbit (Best Real World Game).

Mobile games will get their next chance to shine at GDC 2011, during both the IGF Awards and Game Developers Choice Awards on March 2.

#toyfair The Plants Vs. Zombies board game is real. This is a prototype, essentially the rough draft of the game that the people at Screenlife are planning on making. I spotted it at Toy Fair 2011 where it was so new it wasn't even in Screenlife's printed brochure. More »

Plants vs. Zombies Screenshots

Our friends overseas -- who live in the United States of Kingdoms, which we're fairly certain is what the UK is short for -- are about to have their free time sucked into oblivion. Publisher Mastertronic has announced plans to bring PopCap's most devilishly addictive titles to UK retailers on various platforms, starting with the February 18 release of PopCap Hits for Xbox 360; a tidy bundle which includes Bejeweled 2, Peggle, Feeding Frenzy and AstroPop.

Shortly thereafter, the publisher will port Plants vs. Zombies to the DS, and will release a second collection of PopCap Hits for 360, including Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, Feeding Frenzy 2 and Heavy Weapon. Mediatronic also plans on releasing retail versions of a few of the casual developer's titles on PC later this year. Basically, we hope that the UK doesn't have any big projects coming up that will require its citizens to be as productive as humanly possible, because, hoo boy, that's a whole lot of PopCap.

Hello everyone! I have some bad news for you, courtesy of PopCap Games! The zombies are coming again, straight for your house, and they are—how should we put this—hungering for your brains. And, you know, that just can’t be good.

Yes, Plants Vs. Zombies, our splendiferous strategy game that pits loveable eco-friendly plant life against undead, traffic-cone-wearing, brain-eating zombies, is coming soon to PSN. And the only thing we can tell you, if you don’t want your brains to be part of a delicious and wholesome zombie lunch—perhaps with a side of intestines, or maybe some foie gras—is that you get your plants ready hold ‘em back.

Perhaps you did not know that plants are an effective weapon against zombies. Perhaps you weren’t aware, for example, that flinging a slab of butter from a Kernel-pult at an approaching, fly-specked, dentally-challenged zombie would temporarily freeze him in place, allowing your trusty pea-shooters to pummel him with abandon.

If you did not know this, then I humbly submit that you are woefully and shamefully ill-prepared for the upcoming apocalypse. And you only have yourself to blame. The solution? Thank you for asking. We here at PopCap recommend that you pick up Plants Vs. Zombies for PSN. It will teach you everything you need to know to stop the zombies from eating your oh-so-delicious-especially-with-a-lovely-glass-of-Chardonnay brains.

A portion of a Nintendo-Okie review… Plants Vs. Zombies is a great game on systems where it works perfectly. The single player campaign and the new mini-games are worth playing if you’re a huge fan of the franchise. You’ll have to deal with less than stellar animation and slow down. There are better [...]

Plants Vs. Zombies, a wonderful video game that is on just about every device other than Androids and toasters, will be out for Androids in "Q2", the folks at Popcap tell us. That means April-June. We played it briefly this week. Looks sharp. Peggle's a Q2 Android game too. More »

Is this still everyone's favorite tower defense game?

Widely anticipated adaptation now available in North America, features multiplayer action, four exclusive mini-games and 14 new achievements.

Things are looking up for game-loving Android owners. First, we unveiled the Android version of the Joystiq app and now, much less interestingly, PopCap reveals that both Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies are headed to Android as well. Posting on Twitter, PopCap's Jeff Green uploaded images of both games running on an Android device. In response to another Tweet, Green also stated that the games won't be supported by ads, but will "probably" be sold via "the various marketplaces."

We've contacted PopCap to see if we can dig up any more information. We'll plant an update right here if we hear anything.

A quick note for all the undead-hating green thumbs out there: The Xbox Live Arcade version of Plantz vs. Zombies is on sale this week. Normally 1200 MS Points, the defensive gardening sim is now available to Xbox Live Gold members for 800 MSP ($10). That $5 saving could buy a lot of mulch.

#popcapgames The makers of massive hits Bejeweled, Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies are eying 2011 as the year for aggressive expansion, PopCap Games head Dave Roberts tells Forbes. More »

Do not adjust your computer monitors, friends -- you might think they're acting up, considering how many times the words "Angry Birds" are about to be repeated after the jump. It's not a deja vu-like glitch in the Matrix; Rovio's poultry-flinging casual game made its way into nearly every category of Apple's recently released rankings for the most popular iOS games of the year. These lists are split into the most downloaded free apps, top selling paid apps and top grossing paid apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad -- check them all out after the jump.

Unfortunately, these lists are ranked alphabetically instead of by actual downloads, but considering some of the repeated victors include Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled 2+ Blitz and Words with Friends, we think we can accurately fudge the numbers: They were all downloaded a spajillion times.

Looking to gorge on more than pumpkin pie and turkey this Thanksgiving at your your Aunt Mimi's? PopCap is offering 50 percent off its entire library of PC and Mac games through November 29 -- everything. Gobble gobble!

We've planted the first footage of Plants vs. Zombies DS (due January 2011) right here, offering a glimpse of the new minigames: Heat Wave, Homerun Derby, Bomb All Together and a shmup called Air Raid. The DS version also touts new achievements and is, like all things PvZ, unbearably charming.

Etsy user AnUnclesMonkey recently homebrewed a quartet of Plants vs. Zombies figurines -- all based on living species from the game. Act quickly, and you could even purchase one, including the Torchwood, Kernel Pult, Hypnoshroom or Peashooter (seen here).

Casual game (and class 3 electronic pharmaceutical) developer PopCap apparently had a beta of a RPG that "felt like a turn-based version of Diablo that was very cute." PopCap's creative director, Jason Kapalka, recently told Develop in an interview about this latest threat to global productivity. Thankfully (for humanity), Kapalka explained the game's complexity spiraled "out of control," stopped being casual and was dropped.
The game now slumbers in PopCap's "design review" dossier, awaiting the day some adventurous designer solves the mystery of making it casual and unleashes its fury upon the masses. Kapalka expressed that every couple of months PopCap looks back on the game "because it was really fun," but that there are a dozen or so games in the same position. "These games are never 100 percent dead," Kapalka said. Diablo never is. Never.

Former EA.com editor in chief and longtime game journalist Jeff Green is now an employee of virtual drug pusher PopCap Games, reports Armchair Empire. He'll be heading up editorial and social media at the company, though it appears his employer's leash won't be held quite so tightly this time around.

"Don't worry kids, I have a long, generous leash at the new gig for ongoing podcasting, mag article writing, etc." Green said of his new position via Twitter. He also announced the return of his podcast "Out of the Game," with N'Gai Croal, Shawn Elliott and Luke Smith; as well as a new monthly column he'll be penning for EGM.

In an official statement, Green spoke highly of the Plants vs. Zombies developer. "PopCap never stumbles, and with PvZ you can see that they're just getting better and bolder. When I was talking to people about whether to take the job or not, one thing came up consistently: No one doesn't like PopCap. They, and their games, are beloved in the industry." As longtime fans of Green ourselves, we wish him the best of luck in his new position.

Welcome back, Briefanatics! After a short, Summer of Arcade-induced hiatus, XBLA in Brief is back again to give you a heads up on the latest games to hit Xbox Live Arcade. This week we hail the long-awaited arrival of Plants vs Zombies and ... well, Dance! It's Your Stage is available too.

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There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.