Talk:Plants vs. Zombies 3/@comment-27909815-20191210205544/@comment-3398859-20200104150924

While I do believe that PopCap likely has some role in the current quality of the series, I don't think that dismissing it as "EA only publishes the games" quite feels right. Perhaps that is their main job, but they very well could refuse to publish a game if it doesn't meet their standards, and it feels like no mere coincidence that Plants vs. Zombies is falling into the same recognizable patterns that so many EA franchises, most of which are not affiliated with PopCap whatsoever, have fallen into as well. I recall hearing once, that even before the acquisition, PopCap was considering a transition towards free-to-play mobile games, and I believe that this is likely to be true. However, I don't believe the original plan was for anything to get as dramatic as things have gotten as of late. Compare the first versions of PvZ2, which were free-to-play, but the gameplay was balanced, and the number of microtransactions was comparatively small and considerably cheaper, to the current versions, where pretty much new mechanic feels as if it's meant to bite at your wallet in some way, shape, or form.