PopCap Wins Big With Plants vs. Zombies

[John Funk]

PopCap Wins Big With Plants vs. Zombies

Zany lawn-of-the-dead tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies is reportedly the fastest-selling game that casual games monolith PopCap has ever made.

I'm not going to make any pretenses here: I flippin' love Plants vs. Zombies. So do Gamasutra [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/6035-Review-Plants-vs-Zombies] that the game has been selling like hotcakes. In fact, "(a)t this very early point in its history, it's the best-selling game PopCap's ever had."

Yes, better than even Peggle or Bejeweled. Apparently, people just don't like those damn dirty zombies on their lawn. Chouteau believes that PvZ's strength is partly due to how it appeals to the traditionally "hardcore" crowd. Hardcore gamers do love (to hate) the undead, after all. "There's certainly a larger contingent of 'hardcore' gamers purchasing [Plants vs. Zombies] than most of our other titles, with the notable exception of Peggle," said Chouteau. "At the moment, we'd estimate that at least half of all buyers of PvZ would fall into the 'hardcore' category."

It isn't even just that both the concept and subject matter - tower defense and zombies, respectively - both fall into the realm of "things hardcore gamers think are awesome." Chouteau believes that the game's (heavily discounted) presence on Steam, a traditionally "hardcore" distribution platform, also accounts for the positive reception from the not-so-casual side of the tracks. In other words, it's not just what's in the game, but how you deliver it.

The trick lies in finding a good balance, according to Chouteau. PvZ is "deceptively deep," using familiar mechanics like ability cooldowns and resource management - but at the same time, the game "is engaging enough that people end up spending a ton of time in the game before they really realize that an afternoon has just evaporated."

Boy, ain't that the truth. BRB, watering my Zen Garden.

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[oliveira8]

Wow..the news bulk is filled with links.

Anyway Plants vs Zombies is awesome!

Edit:Ah the text was fixed.

 

[KDR_11k]

It seems games for everybody really sell the most. World of Goo also saw huge sales (best selling game on WiiWare I think, only My Aquarium might have more sales) and it has a similar appeal to everyone.

 

[ErGo]

Plants vs zombies is epic, pure awesome. The minigames are tons of fun, and the main story mode is epic. (but i hate the night levels, no free suns ...)

 

[Abedeus]

The game is awesome. Bought it the other day (a week ago or so) at 4 PM and I didn't notice where did my 3 hours go.

 

[Bad Neighbour]

I'd love to see Yahtzee take a look at this ^_^

Great game

 

[Susan Arendt]

Plants vs zombies is epic, pure awesome. The minigames are tons of fun, and the main story mode is epic. (but i hate the night levels, no free suns ...)

I plant a row of sun shrooms first, then a row of sunflowers after that. Gives a leg up on keeping the sunshine flowing - but puff shrooms are your friend, too.

 

[Ranooth]

Really wish they'd sell it boxed retail so I could get the game...
*sulk*

Your on the internet right now man! Go to their website and get it!

GOTY in my opinion at the moment, tis truly a masterpiece.

 

[John Funk]

Funny how casual games were the devil twelve months ago, but now all of a sudden they're the coolest thing around.

Trends eh.

Well, PvZ is the exception. But you'll find many more game studios going for more casual games these days. Because with a handful of exceptions, blockbuster titles simply aren't profitable.

 

[GothmogII]

Really wish they'd sell it boxed retail so I could get the game...
*sulk*

Your on the internet right now man! Go to their website and get it!

GOTY in my opinion at the moment, tis truly a masterpiece.

I don't buy games that don't come retail. Never have, never will. Call me old fashioned, but I refuse to pay for a game that doesn't come with a CD/DVD (or floppy disk in the case of older titles).

Well, you can always back-up the files? Though...I don't know that that means you can also put them on a CD though...

 

[obisean]

It took me a minute to realize that your Wall-Nut wasn't giving the zombies the crazy eye.

 

[nhex]

I do wonder why PopCap allowed Steam to undercut their price by half ($10 vs. $20 that they offer on their site). It's mostly annoying because I want to purchase the Mac version.

 

[John Funk]

...because with a handful of exceptions, blockbuster titles simply aren't profitable.

With a handful of exceptions, blockbuster titles are absolute garbage.

They don't sell well because they're obviously shit and nobody wants to play them, not because they aren't profitable.

I actually repsect casual game developers for making games with a specific audience in mind, rather than trying for the one-size-fits-all demographic that greedy publishers are currently targeting (and failing to reach, largely due to it being an impossible goal).

In fact, I'd guess that the most successful companies right now all favour a niche audience. Blizzard & other MMO developers are the obvious examples, but publishers like Atlus & 505 keep chugging along despite most reviewers' determined attempts to bury them.

Perhaps the mainstream is finally giving up the ghost? We can only hope.

I don't think that's particularly fair. With most development budgets these days, a game needs to break 1 million copies sold - minimum - to be successful. You can have a great game that only sells 500,000 - by most definitions a success - but it won't recoup development costs. Even excellent games sometimes don't reach that.

 

[John Funk]

With most development budgets these days, a game needs to break 1 million copies sold - minimum - to be successful. You can have a great game that only sells 500,000 - by most definitions a success - but it won't recoup development costs. Even excellent games sometimes don't reach that.

Aren't you applying a Halo/Killzone/GTA4 budget across the board when in reality only 1% of games will cost anywhere near that amount?

I can't imagine games like LittleBigPlanet, Left 4 Dead, Mario Galaxy or Chinatown Wars costing $50m+ but all of them are huge titles for their respective systems.

Second-tier exclusives like Siren, Disgaea 3, Crackdown, No More Heroes etc. will probably cost even less. They must do, or else they wouldn't keep appearing.

Then you have publishers like Atlus who continue to put out niche games to mediocre critical reception and dire sales year after year. And I haven't even mentioned downloadable games (which are more popular than ever). Or the massive volume of shovelware for most systems.

Sorry but I just don't believe that "most development budgets" require more than a million sales for the developer to break even.

It was actually part of a very good keynote by Peter Tamte of Atomic at TGC - I can't remember all the numbers cited exactly, unfortunately. You assume that of every game sold, $50-60 goes into the developers' pockets? Not at all. You have retailer fees, production costs (though very marginal), marketing costs, publisher fees, distribution costs (again relatively marginal), etc. Hell, a lot of times just marketing for a game is a HUGE chunk of the budget.

Especially with development times and expenses being what they are in the HD era, multimillion dollar games are becoming more and more common, and they simply aren't recouping investments.