Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare was a "risk", admits EA's Gibeau

News by Dave Cook Contributor

Published on June 26, 2013

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is the co-op shooter set in PopCap's cultivating undead world. It saw a mixed reaction when it was announced during EA's pre-E3 conference but now we've had time to sleep on it, EA's Frank Gibeau has stated that the publisher will make the right Plants Vs Zombies experience on the right platforms.

Speaking with IGN, Gibeau said of the game's reveal, "It was a risk. We weren’t sure if people were going to like it or think we were insane. We were very pleased with the response this week. But we will create the right Plants vs. Zombies experience for the right platform.

"We think the sky is the limit on it. We don’t want to over-iterate it. Everything we do in the Plants vs. Zombies universe must be extremely high-quality, PopCap-level quality. We think we’re striking the right balance with the mobile game that’s coming out in a month, and then also experimenting on the console with a different experience later this year.”

While Plants Vs Zombies 2 hits iOS on July 18, Gibeau stressed that he sees EA supporting the game with new updates and content for years to come, and added that both the mobile game and Garden Warfare on Xbox One will have some cross-overs in terms of characters and themes.

"Some of the units that you see in Garden Warfare, some of the plants and zombies, are actually from Plants vs. Zombies 2,” he continued. "The Bonk Choy guy that knocks people out. Some of the new elements are shared. Characters, maybe settings, they’ll share. But from there, they’ll start to branch in potentially different directions.

"When you have the universe, everybody has their favourite plant or their favourite zombie. You saw the disco guy from the first game in there. But yeah, on the mobile device, we’re going to continue to support that with more episodes and more features and more content. We’ll be in the Plants vs. Zombies 2 business for many years.”

What do you think of Garden Warfare? Is it a cheap attempt at riding the shooter wave, or does it look like a lot of fun? Get our initial reveal coverage here then let us know below.