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Plants vs. Zombies becomes a quest in WoW: Cataclysm
Though past team-ups between PopCap Games and World of Warcraft have resulted in full-on in-game ... games, it seems Bilzzard's taking a different approach with the inclusion of Plants vs. Zombies in upcoming WoW expansion Cataclysm: it pared down and recreated PvZ as an in-game quest! Madness!
Singing Sunflower companion pet voiced by Laura Shigihara
If you're a Plants vs. Zombies fan, you are quite familiar with Laura Shigihara, the composer for the PopCap Games plant-a-thon. She is also the voice behind the Plants vs. Zombies theme song. On her blog today, Shigihara confirmed that her voice will be used for the companion pet, the Singing Sunflower, which players receive after completing the Peacebloom versus Ghouls minigame in Hillsbrad. How awesome is that? Besides being fun and kind of novel if you're into PvZ, you get a pretty cool reward for finishing the quest: a "singing sunflower" pet! I actually had no idea this information was public until Hashimoto linked me to TotalHalibut's video earlier tonight... incidentally, I was right in the middle of recording the sunflower's voice when I watched it. ^_^ I am so excited about voicing a WoW-pet because what can I say ... I'm a big nerd. Peacebloom versus Ghouls is a minigame/quest in Hillsbrad that puts the player in charge of Brazie the Botanist's garden of ghoul-destroying plants. If you've played Plants vs. Zombies, you'll feel right at home. Defeat wave after wave of ghouls and you will claim your very own Singing Sunflower companion. These new facts continue to illustrate the intimate and awesome relationship between Blizzard and PopCap, bringing good tidings to gamers who are fans of both excellent companies. Hopefully, more collaborations like this are in store for the future.
Jeff Green becomes PopCap director of editorial and social media
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.
PopCap and NCsoft team up for Korean 'PopCap World'
PopCap and NCsoft are cooking up a new product that threatens to destroy productivity in Korea: "PopCap World." The games platform, launching later this year, will be operated by NCsoft and will feature 13 PopCap titles at launch. The games will be offered for free with "optional, premium paid elements to be added later." The initial sampling includes hits of Bejeweled and Plants Vs. Zombies, in addition to an "all-new multiplayer" fix called Super Zuma, which PopCap assures was "built exclusively for Korean players." PopCap's casual empire, originally built on addictive solo experiences, has expanded rapidly to include the addition of social features and Facebook games. And Korean psychiatrists thought "StarCraft addiction" was an issue ...
PopCap making 25% of business in mobile space, sees future in social gaming
PopCap's Dave Roberts spoke with TechFlash recently, and revealed that about 25% of the company's profits are coming from the mobile division. You'd think that the iPhone would be a huge part of that (and it is), but it turns out the iPhone isn't alone -- Java/BREW versions of the games are also very popular for older wireless phones. In that sense, PopCap is a different iPhone game company -- rather than depending on Apple and the App Store for profits, it's a true cross-platform developer. Roberts says the company is aiming for social gaming next -- Zuma Blitz is going to be the next big push, and PopCap is very tuned in to the relationship between the iPhone and Facebook. "Our customers love it," Roberts says about combining iPhone games with Facebook stats. "It is really sticky. It gets people excited about playing." It'll be interesting to see what PopCap does with Apple's Game Center -- presumably, they'll include the functionality in their games sooner rather than later. Finally, Roberts says that a lot of casual game companies have come and gone in mobile gaming, but PopCap has endured, mostly because they simply work hard on making great games, and selling those in as many places as possible. "We've made more money on mobile gaming than probably any other company except for EA, just by doing our thing," he says. And as anyone who's enjoyed a Plants vs. Zombies marathon will tell you, we're glad they did.
Plants vs. Zombies taking root on DS January 2011
This January, you'll be able to play Plants vs. Zombies on two screens without running two simultaneous games on your iPhone and computer. PopCap Games revealed plans today to publish the tower yard defense game on DS in January of next year, at a suggested $19.95 price point. The DS version will have all the content of the original release, "as well as new and exclusive game content." The DS port of Peggle added entirely new, entirely weird levels under the existing levels, but there's no telling how extensive or insane the additions to Plants vs. Zombies will be.
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition available on Steam for Mac and PC
Steam is growing regular ol' Plants vs. Zombies into the "Game of the Year edition." The free update is available for existing PC copies of PvZ. In addition, PvZ is now available in its GOTY incarnation on Mac for $10. Remember, with Steam, if you own the game for Windows and are a closet Mac user (or vice versa), you also own it for the other system. The update adds 20 Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud support and the "Zombatar" -- a custom zombie creator. You can also try out the Zombatar on PopCap's site and use the image for any of your social networking sites. In only a few minutes we made what we imagine to be a rabid transvestite b-boy.
Plants vs. Zombies takes root on XBLA in 'early September'
Finally, a chance to link the Plants vs. Zombies theme song again! Oh, and we've got some news too, but first -- let's just load up the theme song again real quick. Okay! Now that we've got that pumping in the next tab, we can get down to the news: PopCap is bringing its tower defense game, Plants vs. Zombies, to Xbox Live Arcade in "early September" for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). (The earliest it could launch in September would be Wednesday, September 1.) Aside from improved graphics (full 1080p!), the Xbox 360 port will also boast 21 different minigames, two new modes (Co-op and Vs.) and a "house" feature where players can create a custom space that tracks progress and has leaderboards for sizing up which of your friends has the greenest thumb of all. If you like your games planted on disc, PopCap also plans to launch Plants vs. Zombies, along with Zuma and Peggle (both already featured in PopCap disc compilations), as an Xbox 360 retail compilation, and the company will re-release Plants vs Zombies for PC and Mac in a "Game of the Year" package, with a limited number shipping with a zombie figurine. Both disc-based releases are expected to shamble to retail shelves "this fall" for $20.
Plants vs. Zombies XBLA getting co-op, versus mode [update]
According to a recently revealed list of XBLA Achievements found over at Xbox360Achievements, it seems that the upcoming XBLA iteration of PopCap's zombie gardening game Plants vs. Zombies will be getting a new versus mode, as well as the inclusion (in some form) of co-op play. Two separate Cheevos indicate as much -- the first named "Versus vs. Versus" (fittingly enough) and the second named "ZFF's 4 Evr" (earned by bowling "a winner with a friend in Co-Op Wall-Nut Bowling"). The real question is, of course, whether or not everyone's favorite crazy gardener be a playable character -- we can only dream, folks. Update: A recent press release from PopCap confirms it: Plants vs. Zombies will have a Co-op mode, as well as a Vs. mode. Ed Allard, PopCap's head of worldwide studios, says, "The two new multiplayer modes allow gamers to work cooperatively to defeat hordes of invading zombies, or go head-to-head in a true 'plants vs. zombies' challenge." For more on the Xbox 360 version, check out our announcement post here.
PopCap rolling out Zuma Blitz on Facebook
Hot on the heels of PopCap stating that social features would be added to all its existing games, the company has announced Zuma Blitz for Facebook. Zuma Blitz is "expected to roll out gradually" in three weeks with a beta. The company will update the app with weekly tournaments, new levels, an 'experience points' system to unlock features and "a 'treasure chest' virtual currency-based system for obtaining in-game power-ups." Zuma Blitz is PopCap's second "full-fledged" Facebook game. The casual e-crack developer previously released Bejeweled Blitz, which, according to PopCap, has had nearly 30 million players and 100 million sessions daily since being introduced 18 months ago.
PopCap: Social features coming to 'all existing games'
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/13/popcap-social-features-coming-to-all-existing-games/'; PopCap Senior Designer David Bishop said today that the company is "looking to add social features to all our existing games going forward." Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Bishop wouldn't elaborate on what kind of social features we could expect to see or which existing games might get the social treatment first, but he did mention sending cross-platform taunts and challenges in Peggle as a hypothetical example. When questioned, Bishop said we could expect to see these features rolling out in the next six to 12 months.
Man 'beats' Bejeweled 2 after playing for 3 years
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/30/man-beats-bejeweled-2-after-playing-for-3-years/'; We admire all forms of dedication -- even the absolutely insane forms. A California steel contractor named Mike Leyde recently displayed one such type of persistence by playing a single round of his casual game of choice, Bejeweled 2, for 2,205 hours and 51 minutes over the course of three years. In that time, he collected 4,872,229 gems, earning the game's highest calculable score, 2,147,483,647, at which point the score display got really perplexed and went blank. (Check out a video of Mike's achievement after the jump.) According to PopCap, Leyde is the first person to ever "beat" Bejeweled 2. That's one way of looking at it, we suppose. Another way of looking at it is to say that everyone else who's ever played Bejeweled 2 is a quitter. Yeah, that's right. Why don't you follow through with something for once in your life? Sheesh.
Microsoft takes both PopCap Arcade collections to Japan
Microsoft recently turned its eyes to the east and decided, you know what, the good people of Japan look like they have way too much free time on their hands. Its solution for their overabundance of recreational opportunities was one we've become very familiar with over the past few years: The company will bring both volumes of the PopCap Arcade collection for Xbox 360 over to Japan in a single bundle, retailing for 3,990 yen ($43). This one, malevolent disc contains within its circular borders a cornucopia of time-devouring casual classics: Bejeweled 2, Zuma, Feeding Frenzy, Astropop, Heavy Weapon, Feeding Frenzy 2, and Peggle. By our estimation, Japan should get back to being productive sometime in the middle of 2014. [Via Siliconera]
Current game network developers comment on Apple's Game Center
Way back in February at Macworld, one of my questions to Eros Remini of OpenFeint was pretty blunt: "Why," I asked a representative from the biggest third-party social gaming network on the iPhone, "haven't we seen an official platform-wide network?" Remini didn't have a good answer for Apple, but he did say that OpenFeint was happy to step up and fill the void. Apple answered for themselves this morning: They announced Game Center, which will be an official social gaming network for the iPhone and iPad, complete with friend lists, leaderboards, achievements, and everything else that third-party providers like OpenFeint have set up already. So what does OpenFeint think of Game Center? We contacted it for a statement and we are told that OpenFeint is welcoming Apple's Game Center. The company has recently released a virtual goods marketplace called OpenFeint X, and their statement about Game Center says that there's still a place for OpenFeint on top of Apple's official service. "OpenFeint X is currently built on top of OpenFeint and in the future it will also sit on Apple's Game Center social graph, achievements and leaderboards so developers and gamers don't miss a step," Jason Citron, CEO of Aurora Feint says. Current OpenFeint players (of which there are 19 million at last count) will automatically become OpenFeint X members, and it sounds like OpenFeint plans to move on to the virtual goods market, leaving their old social gaming realm behind for Apple. There were a few other reactions from various developers and publishers about the Game Center news -- read more information from PopCap and Ngmoco after the link below.
App Store leak hints at iPad versions of Plants vs. Zombies, Worms
Looks like you early iPad adopters will have something good to play -- PadGadget noticed yesterday that Apple's App Store listings accidentally included a few unannounced iPad launch games in their store listings, even though the games aren't available for download yet. A few games, like Flight Control HD and Labyrinth 2 HD – both high definition iPad versions of their iPhone counterparts – had already been announced by their respective developers but there were at least two big titles on the list that gamers might appreciate: Plants vs. Zombies HD and Worms HD. Yup, looks like both PopCap's popular topiary tower defense game and the old fightin' invertebrates are coming to the iPad on day one. Of course, this could just be a slip-up on Apple's end -- these could be placeholder names, or they could just be testing the app store for iPad titles. But considering the popularity of PopCap's titles on the portable platforms, odds are very good that as soon as you get home from the Apple Store on iPad on April 3rd, iPad day, Tall Nut and all of his other buds will be ready to play. [Via Touch Arcade]
Plants vs. Zombies started as Insaniquarium sequel, PopCap is human
If you, like us, were laboring under the impression that the entity known as "PopCap Games" was some sort of supernatural anti-free time daemon that simply willed release after release of perfectly polished and addictive gameplay into an increasingly submissive world, then you'll probably find this little writeup over at Ars Technica intriguing. Apparently PopCap is just a video game developer, made up of real people who draw ideas out on notepads and tweak them as they see fit. Who knew? For example, its latest runaway hit, Plants vs. Zombies, started out as a sequel to Insaniquarium, but as the gameplay was tuned more towards a tower defense-like setup and the idea arose of regenerating sunlight as a resource for the fight against the undead, the title morphed into the time-killer we know it as today. Of course, there's no doubt that a game that featured locust aliens and "jolly-moustache-potato-men" would have been just as fun, but it's good to know that the minds behind PopCap are, in fact, human. We'd like to use that knowledge to find a weakness and attempt to reclaim our long-missing boredom, but we're too busy playing its games.
Free Peggle Nights! ... What more do you need here?
The word "free" is a funny thing, isn't it? If you think it means getting something without spending money on it, then we guess a new promotion that allows you to get Peggle Nights for yourself or a family member just by signing up for PopCap's newsletter is pretty darn free. But if you think "free" means "without cost," "without sacrifice" or "without having to miss out on your kid's piano recital because that last orange peg is just sitting there mocking you," then Peggle Nights is just about the least "free" game you can find. It's all in your perspective. [Via Big Download]
Survey says: Millions of Euros spent on casual games in 2009
We get it. Who wants to play an X-Station or a PlayBox when tending virtual crops and vanquishing zombie hordes is so much more appealing? At least, that seems to be the case for some Europeans, as the BBC reports players have shown their support for the casual by plunking down hundreds of millions of Euros last year. In Great Britain alone, 13.3 million gamers enjoyed casual titles through various game portals, with 2.4 million of those users actually dipping into their piggy banks to pay while they play. This averages out to a profit of £117 per person per year -- casual gamers alone in Great Britain spent a total of £280 million. It's also reported that gaming on mobile platforms generated £170 million in the UK (which includes all of Great Britain plus Northern Ireland) last year. Other large markets in Europe have also seen significant revenue. France tallied up £220 million in cash from casual gaming throughout 2009, while Germany doubled that total, securing £440 million from its Hasselhoff-loving populace. We guess Germany can finally be known for loving two things!
Bejeweled celebrates 10th birthday, tops 50m units sold
Can you believe that Bejeweled has been around for a decade? It seems like only yesterday when we accidentally sunk our first afternoon into gem-matching ... and then another ... and another -- oh where has the time gone? According to PopCap, a 10-month celebration of the puzzle game's decade of dominance has commenced. Throughout 2010, a slew of community events will be held, like the first official Bejeweled competition, and new installments in the franchise will be released. The Bejeweled creator has also served up some starting statistics, including word that the various installments in the franchise have collectively sold more than 50 million units. By PopCap's calculation, a copy of Bejeweled is purchased every 4.3 seconds. By our calculation, eight people bought Bejeweled in the time it took you to read this post. Maybe more, if your reading comprehension could use some work.
Plants vs. Zombies shambling to iPhones February 15
PopCap today announced that the iPhone port of Plants vs. Zombies is heading to Apple's handheld on February 15, seemingly aiming for the exact day that it had originally approximated for a delayed release. What's more, the publisher has also released the first trailer for the game (seen above), showing off the port's pared down touch-based controls and getting us even more (trepidatiously) pumped for the impending release. Sure, some other games are releasing this month or whatever, but do those games grab us by the dopamine receptor and refuse to let go? Yeah, didn't think so.
