The hit game Plants vs Zombies is quite popular, and last year around this same time we learned that a sequel was in the works. Then back in March we learned it would arrive on mobile come this summer, only to later find out it would launch as an iOS exclusive. So this isn’t really news, but by now we were hoping for at least some details regarding an Android release.

After a few delays and the launch date pushed back to “late summer” we can happily confirm that this afternoon the hit game Plants vs Zombies 2 has arrived for iOS on the App Store. Yup, Google Play is sitting here with the old version, and there’s no sequel in sight.

We’ve been following the game due to it being wildly fun and successful, but sadly there doesn’t appear to be an Android version coming anytime soon so we have nothing good to report. Recently over on Twitter PopCapGames PlantsvsZombies Twitter account confirmed they have no news regarding other platforms, and that it’s an iOS exclusive for now.

This is nothing new, and even Madden’s NFL Pro 2013 with over a million downloads is now an iOS exclusive for NFL Pro 2014, so the trend isn’t going away quite yet. With millions and millions of Android devices running the world’s most popular mobile OS, you’d think things would no longer happen this way, but they still do.

At least their tweets makes it sound like it will initially be on iOS, and other platforms are coming, but we have zero details on when or even a hint for a release date. It could be next year for all we know. Sorry for the bad news folks!

VIA: Droid-Life

91 COMMENTS

    • No, no and no. This is almost certainly a back room deal between Apple and Popcap to boost Apple’s flagging appeal. There are probably sales minimums that Apple has to meet to maintain exclusivity, hence the lack of definitive Android and PC dates.

    • Fragmentation has absolutely NOTHING to do with it. This argument is getting really old now. The Google Play store has methods to restrict listing games on devices that aren’t compatible. The problem has nothing to do with fragmentation.

      The fact of the matter is, Apple paid Popcap off to make it a timed exclusive. If you think anything else happened, you’re wrong. Plain and simple.

      • And you realize just because you disagree with something doesn’t mean you’re suddenly right. Paid exclusivity is standard practice in the gaming industry and when you have a company as greedy as EA, it’s really no surprise that they caved to a little bit of a payoff.

  2. “…as developer forgets andriod”
    Wow – is that sensationalist writing or what? I’m confident the developers didn’t “forget” andriod. As others have posted, there are plenty of reasons PopCap would release on iOS first.

      • It’s called, Apple dug into their infinately deep pockets and through too much money at Popcap for them to ignore.

      • I doubt Apple paid them a penny… The plain, simple and irrefutable fact is that Apple iPod/iPad owners spend far more on apps than Android owners. End of.

        Absolutely nothing with Apple being sneaky or evil. If idiots want to spend thousands of pounds on Apple devices then that’s their prerogative. While I’d never even consider doing so, it’s basic common sense for Apple to take advantage of that and is what any rational person/company would do.

      • That’s adorable. You obviously know nothing about how the gaming industry works. Paid exclusivity is standard practice. And when you’ve got a company as greedy as EA, it’s really no surprise that they caved to a little palm grease.

      • Here’s a real fact for you, not a made-up fact: Developers make more money from ios than android and not because of money handed over under the table.
        Speaking of paying developers to write apps – look how well that strategy is working for Microsoft’s Win RT and Windows Phone

      • Here’s another amazing fact for you, as a developer myself… it’s much easier today to make games that work for both platforms. In fact, it’s more expensive to make a game for iOS than it is for Android because you have to continually pay a yearly fee to list your game on iOS vs a single fee to list on the Play Store. You also cannot build iOS apps on a Windows based system.

        The cost might not seem like much at all for a company like EA, I’m simply pointing out that the excuse that a developer has any incentive to stick strictly to iOS anymore when iOS and Android are very similar today, just because they’ll make “more money” on iOS is ridiculous. I wont deny that the ‘fact’ that they make more money is false because it’s true. However they aren’t going to cut themselves off other income of one platform just because another “makes more money”.

      • I agree that developers should develop for both platforms because developing for just one platform is leaving money on the table.

        However, if they had to develop for only one platform they should choose ios over android (which seems like common practice to me)

        The reasons:

        1) yearly fee vs one time fee is a petty complaint if you can make hundreds of thousands or even millions.

        2) ios apps are easier to develop for and support because there’s less software and hardware fragmentation. See my next post. It’s a link, so it’ll wait for moderation, but you can search for the zdnet article titled “The sorry state of Android hardware fragmentation”

      • I wouldn’t count out the possibility of Apple paying for exclusivity, it’s been a standard in the video games industry for years….How many of you played Halo on your playstation or Grand Turismo on your xbox.
        This could be the beginning of something bigger.

    • Android may have 70% market share, but 90% of Android phones are cheapies purchased in “emerging market” countries where people use them more like feature phones. Bottom line, they don’t spend money on apps. So while Android’s market share may be higher, and the amount of downloads on Google Play and the iTunes store may be more or less equal, the people on the Apple side are spending much more money. It’s simple economics.

      • So 70% of people spend less money than 30%? Wow apple must really be ripping people off. And galaxy s3 and 4 are huge sellers not to mention the note series and htc etc and all tablet sales besides ipads. Does …not ….compute. restart and try again.

      • Sadly you’re right, since the IPhone is more of a status symbol than an actual device, everyone dumbass with a large wad of cash has one, and they don’t think twice about paying for apps.

      • I don’t know how to reply to such ignorance. You’re claiming to be smarter than and superior to the millions of people who have bought iPhones and iPads. Why don’t you start acting that way?

  4. Blame Apple. Do you really think PopCap just decided they didn’t want to make more money, or that they couldn’t hire developers who could handle this? This is an exclusivity deal, which is why they CAN’T say anything about other platforms. Apple doesn’t want people knowing that it’ll be available in a month or 2 on Android, because that wouldn’t make them look better. Sure, in the old days Android was ignored because it was smaller, and some very high end games may exclude it due to memory limitations (Android apps can’t use nearly as much of the device’s memory as iOS apps), but for a game like Plants vs Zombies it’s definitely possible to get it on Android. Even if it took a little longer, I’m sure PopCap would say when they expected the release. The only reason to keep completely silent is because there’s a contract in place. What would really be interesting to know is what they’re getting out of the deal: guaranteed featured spot, higher percentage of sales, showcasing in ads? Apple’s trying desperately to stay relevant by holding onto the one thing they can still claim is better than Android, their game selection.

    • If what you say is true then Popcap would have asked google for more money than apple was offering, and since Google didnt get it they just did not fight hard enough for their customers and lost.

      • I don’t think Google cares as much as Apple about exclusivity, so I doubt Google even participated in any sort of bidding war for it. I suppose they could have gone to Amazon and tried to get an exclusive deal like they have in the past, but I doubt Amazon could compete with Apple. Most exclusivity deals I’ve seen only last for a month or 2 (more than 6 is VERY rare), so it’s not really a big loss to Google’s customers.

      • Electronic Arts (EA) owns Popcap and publishes all of its games. EA is who would be behind setting up exclusive deals, not Popcap. In the console world this happens, too, but with bigger 3rd party games where there is any exclusivety (that’s not just DLC based) it’s typically a temp exclusive…3-6 months. And the release of it on other platforms is typically not announced until after its initial release. Can hope for the same with this.

  5. Nobody can know for sure why it wasn’t released on android too.
    Maybe because of the high amounts of piracy and hacking aka getting the premium items in the game for free on android, which is less common on iOS. Maybe they wanted to make the best game possible across all android devices so have to take a bit longer to fix the fragmentation.
    Maybe Apple beat google in an exclusitivety deal.
    We may never know.
    All I know is my GS2 won’t have it but at least my iPad will. Btw it’s freaking fun and I can’t stop playing it!

  10. No big deal people are pissed at popcap for charging for key plants that use to be free. I’ll jut wait for the PC version so I dont’t get ripped off.

  11. Fuk Popcap! me and my little nephew waz waiting to get are game on. My 5 yr old nephew was crushed when he found out we couldn’t play is on release night. Another greedy piece of shiz company not willing to please customers. Whatever plants it had would have been fine for me. .

  13. Face it android fanatics,android will always be inferior.I used to have an android until I realized that android apps are pure and utter shit.Android always claims that they’ve matched iOS in terms of number of apps-that’s true.But when you compare both iOS has way better apps it’s about quality not quantity.

    • Couldn’t agree more! Android is dominating right now – iOS too, but not half as much. I have an android phone which is… Ehhh… Not the best thing. Apps runs much better on my ipad mini which has LOWER specs. I just had to point it out

  15. Well… Popcaps has done things like this before. Bejeweled 3 came out a while ago, it came out on iOS but not Android and still has not been released. I am starting to think it is going to be a long wait for us Android users. For now i’ll wait for the PC version to come out.

  16. I am incredibly disappointed in this. I am rather glad that the original is still fun enough for me, but not having PvZ2 just because of an Apple-exclusivity deal really bums me out. And no, I’m not gonna say “Androidz better then crapple” or some other shit like that. I happen to be an Android enthusiast who happens to not give any shit to Apple. But all this exclusivity shit is getting sickening.

    • It’s not stupid if it makes them a ton of money and the skilled people don’t actually have to pay to play it because we are not lemmings.

      So if I can get the game for free, and beat it hardly paying any money, I’ll be incredibly happy.

    • Stop all capping like a moron. Yes samsung phones are better than iPhones. I got tired of Samsung and jumped to HTC since HTC is at least on par if not better than Samsung phones, but you make the rest of us look bad by RAWR ALL CAPS RAGE RAWR!

      • Samsung Sucks for quality and Touchwiz is a childish abomination (hint they are dropping Android for Tizen soon) And Apple are overpriced crippled devices albeit very high quality. HTC makes fantastic hardware but Sense is just too much, it was amazing on my WinMo 6.1 Touch Pro 2 but ICS/JB are beautiful stock.

      • But they have google editions which have far less of the bloat. I think you can even make an HTC One into a Google edition by flashing a new ROM.

        To just say Samsung sucks is an ignorant statement. You can’t do what you can do with the Note series with HTC and can’t even get close with the iPhones. To just say Samsung sucks is a HUGELY broad brush. Samsung makes a huge amount of variety, and while the Galaxy S4 is bloated as all hell, ATT doesn’t have another option for a water resistant phone out of the box.

        So while I’m not a Samsung fan, I’m not just going to tell people they are stupid if they decide to get a Samsung phone. They have their niche’s.

      • Admittedly the Google Editions fix the majority of the issues. But Samsung still sticks to plastic which will never have the high-end feel of an iPhone or an HTC One. The S4 definitely is an improvement but its still not quite there. And I agree my comment sounded ignorant, I just didn’t want to take the time to write out my whole view. And most people will never pay for the Google Editions or flash a custom rom, so my point that Touchwiz is a childish and hideous UI design is valid as it is the only option for most people. And yes the S4 Active is the only water resistant phone for ATT and therefore I can understand why someone would put up with its pitfalls, though the Active is built with better materials and doesn’t feel cheap.

  20. this is why i hate apple. they are GREEDY SHITS! they bought the game for exclusive release. fuck you fuck you. steve jobs die because of this mind set. die you all!! including iphone enthusiast!

  22. Oh wow, I thought Microsoft where the only ones to ruin games, but now it’s Apple too.

    I was looking forward to playing this on my Nexus 7, but now I can’t thank you so much Apple twits.
    I really hope it does one day come out on Android and hopefully like it’s older sibling the PS Vita, best game on the Vita so far is PvZ. But I’ve played it to the point where it’s no fun anymore.

    I want more humor in games, this was going to be it. I’ve been Playing PopCap games for a very very long time, the earliest I can remember was Insaniquarium and I’d love that on Android, but no. Like this we’ll never see it

    • Don’t post like that. Just makes you look stupid.

      Fact is Android has a bajillion screen sizes, and we have less morons willing to just dole out tons of cash and tons more hardware variation. Apple makes perfect sense. They should have released on PC but they might be beta testing the micro transactions on Steam.

  27. IT IS NOT iOS exclusive.

    This is called staggered launch to avoid break down of server infrastructure. If you remember Simpsons Tapped Out was re-launched on iOS and was brought to Android few months later. Some other games come to Android first and later get launched to iOS.

    Stop this speculation about iOS exclusive. For a game like this and a company like EA it is hard to believe EA doesn’t want to make money from Android given it makes same numbers from Android as on iOS.

    • This is by far the silliest explanation ive heard. Learn to live with the fact- iOS is way better than Android.Period!

      • It’s really not hard to figure out.

        I’m sure the least competent players are IOS players and they want to milk them for money to fund the other releases. Apple users over pay for their hardware, for some of their software, for their accessories, etc. IOS is a luxury platform with tons of people who are loose with their wallets.

        Meanwhile on Android and PC you have so many different varieties, variations, so on and so fourth. It makes perfect sense to release a free to play game for the device with the most cows to milk. If someone is buying a $150-$350 dollar tablet they’re probably less likely to spend as much money than people who are buying $400-$1000 dollar tablets.

        THOSE are the facts.

        I’ll wait for it. Glad it’s free to play as long as my hard work can unlock progress. Just means I won’t be tempted to triple dip like last time. Platinumed PVZ on Vita though.

      • Too bad iOS users like you think that having an iPhone gives them the right to be complete and total douchebags. Why come to a droid forum to troll unless you’re jealous that your toy isn’t the coolest anymore and mommy won’t by you a nexus.

        As for companies that ignore the most popular platform in favor milking the iSheep platform, screw them, I don’t need or want your crappy apps and neither should anyone else.
        Popcap made their bed, now they can sleep in it, I’m not purchasing anything from them or EA.

      • Don’t get upset. The game is going to be free. So you don’t need to purchase it to begin with. By not paying for the game you’ll also be getting the challenge that people like us actually want. So don’t worry about giving them any money you won’t need to.

        That is if the game is as good as I heard it is. I hear that there’s only 1 plant you can’t get by playing the game everything else is unlock able. They just want the stupid and lazy people to give them money to progress. The skillfull get a free game. So I don’t see why you need to get angry.

      • It’s not about skill, it’s about time. You don’t need any skills to unlock a plant or something else in such games, you need your precious time. And if you want to get certain item faster, you pay for it. And this option is more appealing for those who don’t want to waste their entire evening to unlock something that’s not worth their time.

    • the only reason, is because all iOS users like to blow shitloads of money on nothing (as is the case when they purchased an overpriced apple product)

  29. Well there are a number of hit titles out there on iOS that hasn’t made it to Android yet.
    Top few : 1) Badland
    2) Limbo
    3) Infinity Blade (series)

    Badland’s multiplayer mode / single player as I watched on Youtube is fun.
    Limbo was there on Xbox 360 / PC before it got written for iOS.
    Infinity Blade uses the Unreal Engine and hence looks pretty amazing.

    So this isn’t something that hasn’t happened before.

      • Ahhh, I thought gaming engines were easy to port to any platform. Usually these things are written in C / C++ to make porting cross platform easy. Weird though..

      • Epic’s chief officer said this, as to why they aren’t making an Android version.

        Well, in an interview with the guys over at Mashable, Chair Entertainment talked a little bit about their decision NOT to bring Infinity Blade or its sequel to Android devices anytime soon. According to a number of online reports, Android is a “wild west” of piracy and the developers surveyed in the study feel Google has been relatively lax in their fight against app piracy which is in turn, sending them packing. This same sentiment is echoed by Chair Entertainment who said,

        “We’re confident that will be worked out and it will become a viable place for game developers, but that hasn’t happened yet. So it’s not the tech, it’s the business platform.”

      • What you said is bs. Unreal Engine is seen in many android games. The reason for the exclusivity to IOS is EPIC’s decision to make it an IOS exclusive as seen in the iphone 4s announcement.

  30. Android has many options like the architecture (ARM/X86/MIPS) not to mention the screens and the not so easily updated OS. It really takes time for a game to be optimized in every single Android device, if you noticed some games doesn’t support certain devices.

    • Not serious issue for developers…
      they wanted it to be exclusive for now…
      u can see that other developers like gameloft. release ios and android versions simultaneously ,,,

  34. Perhaps the “author” of this article should do some research before they attempt to write their next article. Its pretty obvious to anyone with a clue or even a modest brain capacity. Apple made a deal with EA either directly or indirectly to prevent the Android launch of the app. Do you not find it odd how this was used by Crook & Co. during their recent Android bashing article about fragmentation. If you pay or barter for a company to not release something then your hands are dirty and you argument is hollow.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.