PopCap Games is a relatively popular game company, their most well-known games being Peggle, Bejewled, Plants vs. Zombies. Well, the first two had been ported to the iPhone/iPod touch quite some time ago, and Plants vs. Zombies has just made its way onto the platform.
PopCap has made their roots in the PC gaming industry with their roster of games, but they’re not shy to huge success in the App Store, either… Both Bejeweled 2 and Peggle have been on the #1 spots. But nobody could have predicted the huge and instant popularity of their newest mobile game.
Plants vs. Zombies hit the App Store ten days ago, on February 15th. It has just been announced today that the game was the highest-grossing launch in the history of the App Store. They’ve already stacked up more than 300,000 downloads… Each download is $3. That means there has been a total of $900,000 made from this game. After Apple’s cut of 30% (or $270000, in this case), that means PopCap Games have made $630,000 in just ten days, from one game in the App Store.
That is an enormous amount of money in such a short amount of time… I applaud PopCap Games for their overwhelming success on the App Store with this title.
I personally haven’t picked it up yet, but… There we are. Just bought it. I’ve never played Plants vs. Zombies on any platform, but I love all the other PopCap games that I’ve played, so there’s not much doubt I’ll enjoy this one.
Judging by the success alone, I recommend you check this game out. It’s only $3, and it’s holding steady a 5/5 rating on the App Store. You can find the game here if you’re interested.
I’ll be spending some time with it very soon.
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14 Responses
I picked this game up about a week ago. I had never heard of it before but the reviews in the app store sounded good so I bought it. I absolutely love it. Every other app I have seems to bore me after a few weeks and I don’t actually look forward to playing them, but this game is extremely addictive and I don’t foresee that letting up any time soon. I recommend it 100%.
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Unlike many other apps on the market, these guys deserve to be rich. Plants vs. Zombies is almost universally loved and at this price it’s one of the best deals in gaming. For comparison, our game Minigore which was a success for us sold 100K units in its first two weeks on the marketplace, at one third of the price of Plants vs. Zombies. It has taken us six months to sell the current 250K units, and these guys deservedly beat those numbers in 10 days.
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
You made minigore? Nice! It may not have made as much as Plants v Zombies, but I paid for it and got a good bit of enjoyment out of it.. so.. nice job!
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Well deserved. We have other big-name publishers crapping out mediocre games and overpriced ports (y helo, Square Enix), so it’s nice to have one cranking out high quality, well-priced games. Bejeweled (Blitz) and PvZ are two of my most played games on the iPhone.
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Well it’s not just minigore that I hate.. It’s the stupid gimmick that a billion game use, where you don’t progress in the story but only in high score.. For example: pac man, tetris, donkey kong, and even some iPhone games like minigore.. That completely ruins the game for me, it’s ruined many games for me for example: sliding heroes, minigore and it sadly made crystal defenders unplayable because of the fact that I would never be able to beat it.. If minigore, sliding heroes and crystal defenders were all like pvz and split into (actually completeable) levels then I would still be playing them to this day.. So I have no problem with minigore as a game, but with the whole "high score" genre… **TL:DR – I find games that only progress in high scores unplayable.** **EDIT:** also, canabalt I paid for without knowing that It wouldn’t have levels to complete, but just trying to beat my last score..
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
which makes your objection to minigore understandable. I mean, tetris, donkey kong, pac man, these are some of the greats
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
For Zuma there’s a clone called Stoneloops. Insaniquarium would be AWESOME
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Am I the only one who hates reading these "so and so got rich" articles that don’t go into the costs? How many developers and artists are employed at PopCap? How long did they work on play balancing the insane number of moving parts in this game? If you add up the sales on the PC and on the iPhone you may see "millions of dollars", but it seriously /costs/ millions of dollars to make a game at this quality level. In 2006 PopCap had 60 full-time employees, with plans to have another 50 at a second office by now. A million dollars is a few months of salaries, and that’s not including any overhead for equipment and infrastructure, offices, etc.. They raised $22.5 million dollars last year in an investment round. I’m sorry, but this is seriously just business as usual, and probably didn’t make anyone "rich".
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
I bought it on Steam and now the iPhone to play but it doesn’t last long, I finished it in a day and it’s not challenging at all after that. As soon as you get a decent garden going, the level ends, there’s no survival mode with continuous waves of zombies. I have not lost **a single** level since I started it on the iPhone.
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Serves them right, for one thing! It’s a wonderful game, and they’re a wonderful company.
Posted on February 27th, 2010 at 4:26 am
I understand that they are classics and they’re loved by the whole gamer culture, heck, even I have the cardtridges for my nes, but as hard as I try I can’t play them as I would with a real game. I see that I’m making no progress and just quit. My gamer sins would include that I can’t play donkey kong, pac man or tetris for more then a few minutes before I quit.. I’ve honestly never gotten past the second level in pac man, usually I just quit before I finish the first level..
Posted on February 27th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Actually I have played stoneloops, but I think i remember hearing that it was yanked from the store awhile ago.. And I actually prefer Luxor, I played it before stoneloops and going to stoneloops from Luxor seemed like a downgrade so I just stuck with Luxor.. Tho I will admit that luxor does look really plain while stoneloops has a really cool art style..
Posted on February 27th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Whoa, are you THE saurik?
Posted on February 27th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Anyone figured out how to find the yeti? I’ve been playing this game none stop ever since I saw it on the app store, even my kifs have gotten into it
Posted on March 1st, 2010 at 8:16 pm
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