Fan-Developed Plants vs. Zombies 3 Game Using the IP Without Permission Gets Shut Down by EA
Here’s your crazy video game news for the week: it seems a fan group decided they wanted to make Plants vs. Zombies 3 by themselves, and usurpingly, EA isn’t on-board with it.
According to the dev team, what they’re making is a non-profit game and it was titled as “Plants vs. Zombies 3: What Could Have Been.” The title seems apt, as the dev team shared that EA has shut the project down relaying the following message:
PopCap and EA have contacted us directly to stop development on Plants vs Zombies 3: What Could Have Been.
It is not a cease and desist or a DMCA. It was a warning, and the team has decided they’d rather not take the risk.
We believe they managed this situation awfully and unprofessionally, however we don’t have a way to fight back.
Everyone in the team was excited and eager to help bring this project to life… but it seems that that very passion put a target on our heads.
This is not the end for us as a team, but the end for anything Plants vs Zombies coming from us.
Thank you all for the support.
-THE PLANTS ZOMBIES WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DEV TEAM
According to the dev team, after they arranged a re-brand, EA pulled the “Don’t use any of our characters. Even if you make every asset on a unique style by your own pen” card, which would mean they’d still need to shut it down.
Sharing more info, the dev team said EA contacted them on May 14, just two weeks after the announcement of the project on May 1. EA mentions how the dev team is creating an alternate version of the franchise, and this reason is enough for them to request the fans to cease the creation of their fan project,
You can read the entire message from EA below.
We’ve recently seen some of the artwork that you’ve been creating for the “What Could Have Been” project. It’s clear to us how much you love the PvZ games, and we truly appreciate that dedication.
As you know, we’re the developer and publisher of the Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ) franchise, and we own the PvZ intellectual property (IP), including the name, logos, characters, and artwork. Our artists spend an immense amount of time and energy creating our PvZ characters and artwork. That work is of the utmost value to us and so we must protect it from unauthorized use.
We love to see expressions of creativity and dedication from our community of players, and we’re generally OK with fair and non-commercial uses of our IP in many cases. But we have to put some limits in place, and one of these is the explicit use of our IP to create new or alternate versions of our games. We truly do love seeing what fans like you create so we encourage you to review our Policy so you can find ways to express yourself with the IP – such as fan art, cosplay, or videos. Unfortunately, the game you’re developing is an alternate version of our PvZ 3 game that uses PvZ characters, art, and story. For that reason, we must ask you to stop development of your project. We recognize that your project was born out of some changes you’d like to see made to PvZ 3 and we would welcome the opportunity to hear your feedback on how we can improve from your perspective.
We look forward to hearing from you soon and hope you’ll confirm that you’ve stopped development of the game. We encourage you to use that passion for things like art or new stories and don’t hesitate to let us know! We love sharing the creativity of our fans!
The dev team mentioned in their response that they are not looking to replace Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia, and how they are not seeking to monetize or sell the project.
There seems to be a misunderstanding of the intentions of this project. I would like to explicitly state that this fan-game is not meant to act in any way as a replacement of “Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia”.
Our project will not distributed nor be available on PvZ3’s market space and will notably NOT be sold or monetized in any shape or form. The game will diverge significantly in it’s core gameplay and will have a completely original storyline; our target audience is functionally fully distinct from that of PvZ3’s.
All creative elements are and will be entirely developed from the ground. This will include all the artwork and music. We are compromised to not use any of the creative assets developed and owned by the artists and composers working for EA. Any non original asset won’t be present in the final product.
We are actively working on rebranding with a new title, using a temporary placeholder in the meantime. Our dedication to this project’s success remains unwavering, and we are eager to see it flourish independently. Additionally, we extend our best wishes for the improvement of PvZ3 to you and the teams at EA and PopCap.Me and the team behind this project appreciate this warning. Our team is committed to making necessary adjustments to ensure our project maintains its unique identity, distinct from PvZ3.
Best regards,
The Project Bloom Team (Working Title)”
In addition to that, the dev team shared that all art, music, story or asset was going to be made from scratch. But that didn’t matter it seems, as EA replied that the fan-made project was going to indirectly create creative assets that are similar to the theirs, and the publisher pushed for the fan group to create their own characters and experiences with a brand that communicates their unique and original creativity.
Thank you for the quick response and understanding! We appreciate that you’re actively rebranding, as that was one of our concerns. However, we ask that you don’t use our characters, like Peashooter, Sunflower, Wall-nut, or Conehead Zombie, just to name a few. Although you’re not directly using assets or files from our games, because you’re recreating popular characters from our games in your own pen, you’re still copying our IP.
We have no problem if you create your own original characters with their own unique and distinctive features that “live” in the PvZ universe, but if you re-draw our characters in your own style or make characters that are similar to ours, then you’re indirectly using our creative assets, which our artists and composers have worked hard to create.
The fan-made dev team sent a reply to EA stating that they feel singled out, as other community members have made countless stuff inspired by characters and the franchise for decades. They stress in it that are aiming to make every asset original; from the art and story that has yet to be completed, the music and everything else.
We understand that PopCap and EA hold the intellectual rights of the Plants vs Zombies IP and its characters, however, what we find confusing is why this project has been singled out. PvZ has a passionate community of creators that have made countless things inspired by its characters and premise for over a decade and yet, despite our clear efforts to make every asset original, from the art & story to (the yet to be made) music, with no intentions or ability to replace or compete with official installments or monetize the project, yet you continue to demand the termination of this project.
The project currently only stands, in it’s majority, as my artwork. There is no game. It was born out of love and passion of PvZ and its characters. Passion that was as hopeful as the community is now of the franchise’s future.
Through your hollow words of support, that hope will slowly die out, for you have showed more clearly than ever before that you do not care.
For now, EA has not replied to this last email, but even so, the fan-made project is not continuing. According to the main dev working on it, the key takeaways are:
– They knew of the rebrand, and mentioned that was one of their main concerns (now being addressed)
– They know we are making everything from the ground up. No asset reuse
– They explecitely don’t want characters like Peashooter being present in the game
– They previously mentioned they were generally ok with non-profit fan projects
– They were actually ok with us making original characters in the PvZ universe (though we would have to make an explicitely unique stand in of every existing PvZ character… which is not worth it)
As for just calling it something else and not using the PvZ3 brand, the fan group said they were already working on a rebrand when. When the project started, it wasn’t their intention to make a game, but once it took of, they said the name stuck.
While EA struck this fan project down, it isn’t the end, as indie devs seem to have decided that going with a new IP is the best course of action, as most of them voted for this. However, given they are in very early stages, it will be a while before they can share anything. Expect the fan group to share what they’ve created in the short time as a memoir, and they are planning on doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything).
You can keep tabs of the fan group by following their Twitter/X account.
I honestly am not surprised at this, and in EA’s defense, they were respectful in how they worded the takedown request. That said, this is one of those times EA isn’t in the wrong. I mean, even if the fan project wasn’t going to be monetized, it would be confusing on consumers’ end (not to mention risky) if they allowed this to continue. That said, I hope the devs looking to spin this into their own thing manages to pull it off, as that would be the perfect “F You” moment for them to signal to EA.
As for the official Plants vs. Zombies 3, it was released back in 2020 as a soft launch of the game, and to date, there is still no firm official release date set for it yet.
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