PopCap announces upcoming Plants Vs Zombies sequel

After the success of Plants Vs Zombies, a sequel seemed inevitable. PopCap's announcement of said sequel this morning proves as much.

The zombies are coming … again.

This morning, PopCap Games announced that it has begun work on a sequel to its critically beloved blockbuster casual strategy game Plants Vs Zombies. Courtesy the official press release:

The sequel to Plants vs. Zombies is expected to launch by late spring 2013, and will include a bevy of new features, settings, and situations, designed to delight the franchise’s tens of millions of fans around the world. No other details of the highly anticipated new installment in the franchise are available at this time, beyond the following comments from some of the game’s denizens.

So, we’ve got a vague “spring 2013″ release date, promises that the Plants Vs Zombies sequel will expand on its predecessor and not much else. With many developers we’d be concerned that this lack of concrete details indicates delays in the game’s production process, but the firm still has at least half a year to put this thing together, and let’s be honest, when it comes to the company responsible for Peggle, Bejeweled and a number of other games our mothers are unable to delete from their iPhones, we’re willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps realizing that the official announcement was a bit light on useful information, the PopCap PR team opted to fill its remaining space with entertaining, subject-appropriate quotes from some of the biggest stars to emerge from the Plants Vs Zombies franchise. To wit:

“Spring is crullest curlie ungood time, and plantz grow dull roots,” noted an unidentified spokesperson. “So, we are meating you for brainz at yore house. No worry to skedule schedlue plan… we’re freee anytime. We’ll find you.” 

“There was a time we relished a bracing, hearty blend of zombies, in the morning,” said Sonny F. Lower, a representative of the Flora Forever Foundation. “But first, a brisk shower and some strategic pruning are required. Tomorrow is near!”

Now, granted, taken by itself the above chunk of text is baffling gibberish, but it should serve to reassure fans that Plants Vs Zombies 2 — or whatever PopCap eventually ends up titling this thing — will exhibit the same wacky sense of humor as its predecessor. Yes, the tight, well-balanced strategy gameplay of Plants Vs Zombies and its surprisingly large offering of playable content have always been the key selling points for the game, but it wouldn’t really be a Plants Vs Zombies title without the undead scrawling borderline-legible notes to players in an effort to get just a bit closer to their delicious brains, now would it?

Oh, and while we’re on the topic, expect to see Plants Vs Zombies 2 on basically every gaming platform in existence. We have no official word on what platforms PopCap hopes to support, but since it’s nearly impossible to find a modern computing device of any kind that doesn’t offer a Plants Vs Zombies port, we’d be stunned if the company didn’t also attempt to maximize the potential exposure of its new Plants Vs Zombies sequel.