PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was released in 2016 and the multiplayer shooter built on what made the first game work with a roster of new characters, modes, and a deeper single-player experience. Since then, we haven’t heard any official news about a third game, but it appears to have been revealed through a comic book listing.
On Amazon, the comic book Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Volume 2 is available to pre-order, with a release date of September 25. Its description is fairly vague, with zombies taking control of “Neighborville” as heroic plants work to take it back, but that isn’t all that’s on the listing.
“Paul Tobin returns to write the official comic book bridge between video games PvZ: GW2 and PvZ: GW3 with Tim Lattie returning to deliver artwork,” the listing said.
Electronic Arts has not announced Garden Warfare 3. The publisher hasn’t even hinted at it. In fact, it was speculated that the game might have even been dead after news spread of a “secret” Plants vs. Zombies game being canceled at EA Vancouver last year.
On February 24, Garden Warfare creative director Justin Wiebe queried fans about potential features they would want in a future game. He said this was “purely a hypothetical question for [his] own curiosity,” but subsequent posts appeared to confirm PopCap was interested in releasing another game.
The first Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare released in 2014 and included four playable plant classes and four playable zombie classes. Garden Warfare 2 added an additional three on each side, including the “Imp and Z-Mech” zombie, and the Rambo-like “Kernel Corn.” It included access to all of the characters from the original game and any progress you made with those characters could be transferred over to the sequel.
Presumably, a third game would use this same feature, though we worry about additional classes being added. As is, there are 14 to choose from, and any more would risk affecting the already iffy balance. Hopefully, if it exists, Garden Warfare 3 will add new modes and maps, instead, as well as a dedicated campaign mode.
If Electronic Arts doesn’t address the rumor now, we will almost certainly hear about the game at this year’s EA Play event in June. The event is already confirmed to feature the next installment in the Battlefield series.
