A sign for a PopCap game called Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is sprouting up at the Los Angeles Convention centre, the site of this year’s E3. Combine that with a reliable source telling Kotaku that the long-rumored PvZ shooter — yes, shooter — is about to unveiled, and it looks like we’ve got a name to attach to the game.
You know… the title sounds like “Modern Warfare”. Get it?
The photo for Garden Warfare ran on the gaming website Gamekyo today (we spotted it via Polygon). But the signage doesn’t explain what kind of game this is and observers might assume it’s tied to the newly-announced Plants Vs. Zombies 2. PvZ 2 is a tower defence game in the same style as the first PvZ. Garden Warfare most likely is not.
There’s that title.
And there’s all those rumours. Our sleuth Superannuation dug this up last August:
Among the handful of openings [at PopCap] was one from April for a 3D animator — something that seems pretty peculiar given PopCap’s history as primarily developing 2D games. However, that is nowhere near as baffling as the description of the job in the listing, which mentions that the animator is involved in the synthesis of “gameplay, storytelling and character movement” by making “emotionally believable characters that allow game players to interact with the game, whether photorealistic or stylised, in a realistic and believable fashion.”
And then a Kotaku source told us this later that same day:
This afternoon’s great PopCap mystery may now be a little less mysterious: a Canadian industry source with ties to Electronic Arts has told Kotaku that a small team at EA’s Burnaby campus is working on a new entry in the Plants vs Zombies franchise.
The thing is, it’s not another tower defence game. Apparently it’s a multiplayer-oriented first-person shooter. For consoles. Seriously.
…
Which certainly fits with what Kotaku has since been told: that the small team, comprised mostly of former members of EA’s Black Box studio (Skate, Need for Speed), is working on a Plants vs Zombies console title that’s “in the vein of Team Fortress 2”.
We’ve reached out to PopCap for comment. Worst case scenario, we’ll know for sure what Garden Warfare is on Monday, when EA holds its big E3 press conference.
Comments
7 responses to “Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Outed, Is Likely A Shooter”
They’re trying to buy people off by releasing that facebook game.. it’s nowhere near as fun as the original, but it’s ok. Why ruin the awesome formula you had?! I hope this just turns out to be a side project, and the real thing is still on the way 😉
That being said, it could still be an awesome game! I’ll no doubt give it a look over to see how/if they integrate any of the concepts from the original game. Could be pretty awesome if done right.
Would explain why their Facebook page last week had official images of
Grass Effect
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400478_10151613859429190_1745164933_n.jpg
Dead Face
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/431786_10151614047349190_2099533488_n.jpg
and Petal of Honor.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/971111_10151614421359190_1400034364_n.jpg
I wholly approve of this wordplay.
This pictures are awesome! I am now interested in this game.
Amazing.
They have some character about them as well!
I’m hoping they make a mini-series out of this then a game now…that grass effect team is just perfect.
My money is on something akin to Orcs Must Die – Keeping the original gameplay to some extent, but throwing a player character into the mix.
I’m thinking a Tower Defence shooter like Sanctum and I could kind of see it working however im unsure. Will be interesting to see though.