Plants vs. Zombies shuffles to UK retail

The critically acclaimed Plants Vs. Zombies has hit retail shelves.

The tower defence game, which pits various plants against an army of zombies, launched as a digital download in May this year for PC, Mac and iPhone. It is Popcap’s fastest-selling title of all time, and has also enjoyed rave reviews across the board, earning an 88 Metacritic rating and a nine out of ten score from Edge Magazine.

The game was also backed by a huge online marketing campaign by PopCap, which included a music video that has been watched over one million times on YouTube.

The UK retail release is being handled by Focus Multimedia and will cost just 9.78 – cheaper than the game’s digital price of 14.95.

We’re delighted to team up with PopCap Games again and bring Plants Vs. Zombies to UK retail in time for Halloween,” said Focus Multimedia’s managing director Craig Johnson.

The amazing response this game has received from critics is unprecedented. Plants Vs. Zombies truly appeals to both casual and hardcore gamers, generating record sales online. We know from our experience with the Bejeweled franchise that a game’s downloadable sales success will translate into retail sales success. You could say that Plants Vs. Zombies is a dead cert to become the best-selling PC casual game in Q4.”

PopCap has become one of the casual gaming sector’s biggest developers. Their games have been downloaded over one billion times worldwide, and the firm’s range includes Bejeweled and Zuma, which have sold 40 million units between them.

Budget specialists Focus Multimedia is the firm tasked with delivering PopCap’s titles to retail. Most recently the publisher launched the popular Peggle Nights in
August.