Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Android Launch Expected This October

[BlameTheWizards]

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Android Launch Expected This October

The sequel to PopCap's 2009 hit may have been delayed due to a "truckload" of money from Apple.

According to Polygon, a source familiar with EA has pointed to an October launch for the Android release of free-to-play sequel Plants vs. Zombies 2. The iOS release took place on Aug. 15 and quickly <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127364-Plants-vs-Zombies-2-Exceeds-PvZs-Lifetime-Downloads>took a zombie apocalypse-sized bite into the App Store market, being downloaded almost 25 million times as of the end of that month. A release on the Chinese Android market occurred earlier in September.

Interestingly enough, Giant Bomb just reported today that Apple apparently paid EA a hefty sum to delay the Android release of Plants vs. Zombies 2, making it a timed exclusive on the iPhone. "Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2]," Frank Gibeau, head of EA Labels, reportedly said during an internal town hall meeting.

Timed exclusives and large sums of money being passed by hardware owners is certainly nothing new to gamers, but the fact that it's happening with a freemium game on mobile platforms is certainly noteworthy. What do you think? Is this a sign that mobile games are entering the big leagues, or is Plants vs. Zombies 2 just a rare breed among phone games?



Source: Giantbomb

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[Evil Smurf]

Don't get this game, it hides behind microtransactions.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Huh, timed exclusivity for mobile platforms now? Interesting.

Doesn't matter for me though. I bought an Android not for the apps, but to avoid putting up with Apple's shit.

 

[Link XL1]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

 

[Xeorm]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

Really? Haven't heard much about it. What makes it so bad?

 

[weirdee]

I've mostly heard that the microtransactions are largely unnecessary and that nobody actually knows who the hell is paying for them, but the overall situation has left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people.

However, I can't say that I would pass up a large sack of cash for a release delay that somebody else finds more valuable than it actually is...

 

[DirgeNovak]

It's free to play. Of course there are microtransactions. I'll probably download it, play it for 15-20 minutes and then forget I have games on my phone, like I did with every single game I put on there.

 

[Reevesith]

Tried the Chinese PVZ2 was fun, but the game crash & corrupted when I tried to unlock a plant :/ hope they fix that.

 

[raingod]

Tried the Chinese PVZ2 was fun, but the game crash & corrupted when I tried to unlock a plant :/ hope they fix that.

I have the that, too. There are missing graphics/glitches. My wife just suddenly dies because of a missing zombie image/sprite. The zombies disappears when they get hit.

 

[wulfy42]

First was way better. WAY better.

I bought the first for multiple platforms. PC originally, then DS (2 copies for me and my wife) and finally 2 more copies for our Ipads.

PVZ2 isn't even really the same game. Yes...the basics are kinda there...but all the fun has been drained from it. Forget about microtransactions for the most part, it takes an annoyingly long time to get enough starts to get to all 3 maps (Second opens pretty easy but third takes quite awhile). Hard part is....at least for us...it's not fun at all getting the stars along the way.

I've played 100's of hours of PVZ...but can't get myself to spend more then an hour or so at a time on PvZ2...and really only played that long because I wanted to see the third area.

Give it a try...it's free...but don't rush into purchasing anything until your sure you'll enjoy it long term. I'd rather just go back to playing the first game again personally.

All the charm, and fun...is gone.

 

[Lyvric]

Didn't a lot of the original pvz crew get cut out of making pvz2?

It feels way more standard. I miss a lot cute add-ons/features from the first and don't think I've even finished the game during stage 3. Just kind of stopped caring.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

Really? Haven't heard much about it. What makes it so bad?

The same issue that infests lots of other so called 'Free 2 Play' games, lots and lots of grinding to advance to new stages.

 

[Legion]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

Really? Haven't heard much about it. What makes it so bad?

It just gets boring after a while. You get a handful of new zombies and flowers, as well as a few tweaks to the levels but for the most part it is the same game except with ten times more padding. You have to go back and redo missions to earn stars to get to the next area, and most of those missions consist of you being limited in what you can do. For example ot building more than X amount of plants or not spending more than X amount of sun. It makes for a nice challenge to start with but by halfway through the second area it just felt like a grind.

Not forgetting that all but a couple of the plants you have to pay real money for were in the original game, so you are missing out on quite a few decent ones if you don't want to pay for them. You do get some cool new ones, but the game seems designed around limiting the player as much as possible unless they grind or pay money and it just makes it boring.

Granted it is free, so you should definitely give it a shot if you can, but as for myself I deleted it from my phone once I got to the third area because it stopped being fun.

 

[Story]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

Really? Haven't heard much about it. What makes it so bad?

The same issue that infests lots of other so called 'Free 2 Play' games, lots and lots of grinding to advance to new stages.

I know I'm in the minority here, and I suppose I can't say too much considering I never played the original Plant vs Zombies, but I really enjoyed Plants vs Zombies 2. It's pretty fun and I've much beaten the game without having to grind all that much to get some of the locked content. The unobtainable items aren't even necessary to enjoy your experience, the plants you earn by just playing the game are just fine. To me, the micro transactions don't make the game more enjoyable but rather just easier to beat, which is silly to me for such an easy game already.

That being said, I can understand why people would be annoyed at the Squash being locked behind a $3.00+ price tag.

 

[Link XL1]

even without the microtransactions, the game still sucks

Really? Haven't heard much about it. What makes it so bad?

pretty much what everyone just said about grinding. in order to progress to the next time (world) you need a certain number of stars. the stars only become available after you've completed every level in the world, so you have to replay every level 3 times to get all the stars.

on top of that, there are straight up fewer plants and zombies. the game tries to hide this fact by redressing the zombies in Egyptian, pirate, and cowboy clothes, but they are quite literally the same 3 enemies (normal, cone, and bucket) plus maybe a unique one here or there. and thats just the zombies, the plants dont even have a color swap, there are just less of them, even if you do pay for more, and many of them are useless or redundant. you'd think when you unlock a new plant you would then play a level where that plants abilities are highlighted. nope, i used the same set of plants for almost every level.

then theres the actual new gameplay mechanics. first we have the plant food (which is actually kinda fun), every once in a while a zombie will drop some and you can give it to a plant to have it go into super mode for 5 seconds. second is the coin operated hand of god powers, over the course of the levels you collect in-game coins and can spend them to use one of three powers, all of which basically clear the screen of zombies (i beat the game without ever using them). and this is where the microtransactions become just plain stupid, because you can buy 150k coins (attacks only cost 1k) for $99.99 USD.

one hundred dollars for coins that can only be used for useless power attacks! wtf is that?!

finally, all of the fun extra modes that the original game had are gone.

i cannot say this enough, buy the first game, ignore the second. nuff said