Say what you will about the ethical ambiguity of Plants vs. Zombies 2 and its constantly nagging free-to-play business model, but EA and PopCap Games have struck gold with its newest mobile game.
The company issued a press release today stating that the game had been downloaded 16 million times since it became available last Thursday, immediately making it the most successful mobile game in EA’s short history.
The game has divided fans into two camps: those that think it is a perfect model of free-to-play, and others that despair at its naggy, greedy pop-ups. The forum at TouchArcade, one of the biggest mobile gaming sites out there, is full of such debates, though the consensus seems to be it is less egregious than many other offerings.
Ramin Shokrizade, an expert on F2P and so-called “coercive monetization,” recently spoke about the difference between Skill Games and Money Games — those that can be beaten by sheer time and talent, and those that require micropayments to progress — and it appears that PvZ2 is the former.
Since it’s free to try, you can let us know which camp you think it falls into.
[source]EA/PopCap Games[/source]
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