Plants vs. Zombies

Battle for Neighborville: A reflection on it's death.
I've seen a lot of GW2 players wonder when/if GW3 will ever come out. Fake leaks, speculations, desperation. Nothing proven, nothing revealed. Doesn't seem like we'll ever be getting one. ... But maybe we weren't supposed to get a Garden Warfare 3. Maybe we were supposed to get something different. ----------------------------------------------------------- Battle for Neighborville. What wasted potential. It's been almost 3 years since the death of the game. And I'm writing this now as a reflection on it. When i first heard that EA was releasing the final update LESS THAN A YEAR after the game's release, i was OUTRAGED. I thought that it was a case of "oh no, new game isn't earning us enough money, stop working on it!". But it wasn't. I'm not a fan of EA. I'm really not. I think they're greedy and scummy. And yet I'm sitting here admitting that BFN could have been something incredible. My reaction to the beginning of BFN was pretty much exactly the same as everyone else's. I couldn't wrap my head around why on earth the devs would make the game so different? Why?? It completely goes against what the previous games did! I looked at BFN with hate. ... But I gave it a try anyway. Not a 30-minute try. Not a 1-day try. A 3-month try. I KNEW that the game's launch was incredibly rough. But the game wouldn't improve if we all refused to touch it. I bit the bullet, and stuck with it. And during the game's single-year lifespan, i learned a lot. BFN was supposed to be a re-imagining of the Garden Warfare formula. Taking the core concepts and making them even wackier and sillier. It wasn't the GW3 everyone hoped for. It was BETTER. BFN did so many things right. It has massive explorable areas filled to the brim with missions, secrets, easter eggs, and even the ability to start skirmishes that can evolve into full-on battles. The artstyle is much closer to the classic PVZ style. Sillier, more cartoony, less gritty. No variants? No problem. Not only is there a more robust upgrade system that lets you tune your favourite plants and zombies to your liking, but the idea was to add MORE playable characters over time. Don't have a mic but want to communicate with your team? How about a pseudo-chat system where you can send pre-set messages to convey simple phrases? It's not much, but it's better than what we had in the previous 2 games! So what happened? Simply put: The playerbase happened. The blame for BFN's death lies mostly with the playerbase of GW and GW2. Sure, there were stupid decisions made by the devs. Sprint mechanics and map design that caused most combat to only occur directly around the objective instead of all over the place. Lack of damage falloff causing many characters to be a bit too powerful at range. *cough cough ALL-STAR cough cough* Bad optimization causing a moderate amount of lag. Lack of a real closed testing phase causing the launch to have a lot of bugs. More grind for cosmetics due to lack of sticker packs. Sub-optimal marketing and advertising. Busted hit detection. Zomboss being a complete and utter **** to the zombies with no explanation, absolutely unnecessarily rude behavior (Actually fairly out-of-character for him. Sure, he's not the nicest guy, but in most of his appearances he at least acknowledges his minions' successes and understands they can't be expected to win every situation). BFN is far from flawless. It was buggy, it was broken, it was weird, but it was FIXABLE. All of those issues could have been addressed over time. "Pfff, yea right, as if the devs would LISTEN to us", i hear you say. Here's the thing: YES, THEY WOULD HAVE. BFN had something that none of the previous games had. ACTUAL FEEDBACK RECOGNITION FROM THE DEVS. There (was) an entire category on EA answers for BFN feedback. People reported bugs, gave feedback, and while the devs rarely ever actually responded, they certainly heard. How do i know that they actually heard and cared? What proof did I have that the devs actually noticed what was said? Because they heard what I said regarding Z-Mech. Z-Mech in BFN was laughably bad at release. No armor and a lack of sprint. It was very easy to take down, and could accomplish little as it slowly trudged along the ground while everyone else ran ahead. So I submitted feedback. I made a detailed outline about the Z-Mech. I analyzed what it's purpose was supposed to be. A wildcard of chaos? A bunker buster? A tank? All of those were talked about and addressed. I outlined the issues with the mech. I explained why things NEEDED to change. I suggested giving it back it's armor from GW2. And guess what? THE DEVS LISTENED. They gave the mech armor (a 15% damage reduction) AND gave it the ability to sprint so it could keep up with the fight. As far as i can tell, NOBODY had ever really talked about this issue before I did. I had a voice on a critical problem with one of the playable characters, and the devs listened. This proves the devs CARED about feedback. They LISTENED to things that people said. I saw MANY changes happen because people suggested them. All it took was REAL feedback. GW players complained and moaned about things in BFN, not realizing THEY COULD TRY TO ACTUALLY INFLUENCE THINGS. THEY HAD THE POWER TO SUBMIT REAL FEEDBACK THAT THE DEVS WOULD GENUINELY CONSIDER. They didn't give BFN a CHANCE to improve. They didn't want to GIVE it a chance. They didn't wanted to HAVE a chance. It started off rough, but BFN had massive potential to grow and improve with feedback. But GW players refused to let it. They saw something different. Something unique. Something that put a twist on the classic GW style. And they hated it. They didn't want a new game, they just wanted GW2 again! That's right. The players didn't want something new. They wanted the same game, but with more stuff. They wanted the exact same formula, the exact same gameplay, the exact same artstyle, the exact same systems, the exact same stuff. But with more of it. BFN wasn't SUPPOSED to be GW3. It was an attempt to make something new. Something BETTER than the previous 2 games. Something more in line with the classic PVZ style, while retaining the aspects of the shooters. But change is hard to accept. And the playerbase looked upon BFN with disgust. Rather than trying it out for more than 30 minutes and giving feedback, they just defaulted to hating it or giving unhelpful "feedback" that basically consisted of complaining and saying how bad of a game it is. That's right, going "bro Snapdragon needs a nerf, his attack is too powerful it kills zombies way too fast" is not helpful feedback. You wanna know what IS helpful? Saying something like "Snapdragon's primary attack needs a nerf, it's range is far too long and does too much damage. Snapdragon is supposed to be about crowd control and forcing zombies to disperse, right? He needs to get in close to cause zombies to scatter away from the flames. But at the moment, Snapdragon is able to outright KILL most zombies at even a moderate range with ease. I think his damage output needs to be reduced to reinforce his role as crowd control." THAT'S what the devs were looking for. But basically nobody did that. They just complained and gave unhelpful, generic "feedback" Nothing but complaints and ignorance of the already good parts of BFN. Massive explorable environments? Ignored. A much more faithful artstyle? Ignored. A robust upgrade system? Ignored. More characters with completely different playstyles (not just the same character with a different attack)? Ignored. A feedback system that the DEVS ACTUALLY LISTENED TO? Ignored. A solution for mic-less players to communicate with their team? Ignored. Each and every good thing was tossed aside because the game wasn't exactly like Garden Warfare 2. The players didn't want something new, they wanted Garden Warfare 2. But bigger. They wanted the same game but again. But bigger. So congratulations, Garden Warfare fans. You successfully killed off the game that could have been so much better. You refused to give it a chance. You took it all at face-value, throwing it in the garbage because it played and looked a bit differently from Garden Warfare. You couldn't accept that MANY of the issues COULD be fixed with feedback. You didn't want to see it anymore. You attacked it. You hated it. You tried it for 2 seconds and then dropped it. This was meant to be your "constantly updated PVZ shooter" to surpass GW and GW2 that you were all begging for. And you killed it by refusing to accept change. You killed it by refusing to accept that your feedback could help it be better. You killed it by refusing to accept that it's artstyle was much more faithful to the franchise. You killed it. Not the devs. Yell at me. Hate me. Call me a shill or paid actor or whatever else you want. I had genuine hopes in BFN. It could have been the best. But change is scary. And God forbid the GW2 players try anything different. And so, 3 years later, I STILL mourn the loss of BFN. The chances of another PVZ shooter are slim to none. The team that worked on BFN has split up. The team that cared. The team that listened. The team that wanted to try something new. The team that worked hard to make giant explorable environments. The team that redesigned everything to make it sillier and wackier and more faithful to the classic PVZ style. The team that did their damn best to make everything work. They wanted our inputs. They heard our inputs. They wanted our questions. They answered our questions. But most players did nothing but ignore it all. So EA pulled the plug. They really didn't have much of a choice at that point. The game is discontinued. It wilted before it even got a chance to bloom. And I have very serious doubts that anything is going to rise from it's grave. Rest in peace, Battle for Neighborville. You WILL be missed.
Solved
Mysterymaster_OP
Seasoned Hotshot
3 seconds ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
1.8KViews
3likes
7Comments
Account Recovery: May 2023 Activity - Support says Player ID is "Empty"
Hi EA Community Managers, I am reaching out here because I have hit a dead end with standard Live Chat and @EAHelp on X. My issue involves a complex account recovery that requires a specialist to look at legacy migration logs. The Situation: Original Account: I have a physical tablet still running v5.4.1 of PvZ 2. It contains my original Player ID from a successful transfer I did in 2018. 2018 Transfer: I have the Case Number and the Access Code from that transfer. Recent Activity: I played on my phone (the target of the 2018 transfer) until May 2023. I have Google Play Achievements with May 2023 timestamps proving the account was active and high-level. The Problem: Standard support says my Player ID is "empty" or "not found." I believe this is because my data is sitting in a legacy partition (v5.4.1) or is completely transferred to a Player ID during the 2018 transfer that I no longer have the string for. I need to find the ID on which i was playing after the transfer, because i never linked it to EA Account and deleted the game without saving this Player ID I have the physical tablet, the full case details, and screenshots of the 2023 achievements ready to provide via Private Message to any CM who can assist. Thank you!
Slav4ik1321
12 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
36Views
0likes
1Comment
Sometimes i can't redeem my daily quest for completing 8 daily activities.
It awlways happens when i click to collect all it collects everything but the complete 8 daily activities which also happens to be the Quest that gives the most gems which pisses me off even more. I don't really know if the collect all is the cause of the bug but i have Lost like about 50 potential gems beacuse of the bug. And i have been wondering: does this only happen to me?
h1xgb3egsnza
13 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
103Views
3likes
5Comments
Bug
Hello EA team, I have a question about the 7-day beginner event. Initially, I saw 250 Mega Gatling Pea pieces on day 7, but why did it change to 100 Fire Tree pieces when I logged out and logged back in?
e0uli2jszazw
Newcomer
13 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
7Views
0likes
0Comments
Service Update: Garden Warfare on PS3
Since its launch, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has brought the Backyard Battleground to life for millions of players. From epic Garden Ops sessions to all-out multiplayer mayhem between Plants and Zombies, this community helped grow something special. Today, we have an important update to share. As we continue updating our online services, we’ve reached a point where the PlayStation 3 version can no longer support the changes we need to make. Because of this, online services for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare on PlayStation 3 will sunset and be permanently discontinued on April 28, 2026. PS3 was home to many of the earliest backyard battles, and we’re incredibly grateful to the players who’ve been with us since the beginning. The good news is that Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2) remain fully playable on PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 (GW), Xbox One, and PC, and are not affected. Players on those platforms can continue the fight between Plants and Zombies without interruption. To our Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare players who have supported us since the early days on PS3, thank you for your longstanding support. Your battles, strategies, and backyard moments mean everything to us. FAQ Section : Which platforms are affected? PlayStation 3 only. Will PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC be affected? No. The game will continue to be playable on those platforms. When will the change happen? April 28, 2026. Will players be able to transfer progress to the corresponding Gen 4 platform? (ex PS3 to PS4) No. Will players be able to play offline once the game is sunset? No. Will entitlement be migrated to not-sunset platform? No.
EA_LunardustCat
Community Manager
18 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies Game Info Hub
2.3KViews
3likes
16Comments
Unable to play extra hard level of wild west
Hello I am kanika saini . I am playing this for about more than 2 years and only one problem that I am facing till now is that I am unable to move on to second round of "extra hard levels of wild west" . Even if I completed the 1st round still the game stuck on round 1 I even wrote about this in Google review but no actions have been taking Kindly see through it Thank you
45k3slfgicot
Newcomer
20 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
7Views
0likes
0Comments
Co-op survival endless not saving progress
Steam version of game Hardware: Steam Deck When playing co-op survival endless levels and exiting to the main menu, the progress is not saved despite the prompt stating "your game will be saved" I was able to reproduce the bug in every co-op survival endless mode On a personal note, thanks for your time. My wife and I love this game and the survival is our favorite part of it. Looking forward to being able to play the co-op survival endless, soon!
c68798b671709571
Newcomer
23 hours ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™: Replanted
12Views
1like
0Comments
PVZ improvement
It’s a dollar sign on the coins, not a sun. Change it back please. It’s so annoying you can’t even make it original. Also you are supposed to go up and see the tree of wisdom. Better add Giga allstar and the 10 levels of roof night too.
ArztonZX-_-
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™: Replanted
46Views
1like
4Comments
Skin Shop for PvZ Replanted
Hello EA_Cath and Players, something I like about PvZ 2 is the ability to dress up the plants. So why not bring those costumes to PvZ Replanted? This could be done through a section in Crazy Dave's shop that allows us to buy them as shown in the image: Once inside, we can see all the costumes we could buy throughout the adventure: These costumes come from the mod: PvZ 2 Reflourished (Credit to them). Finally, to change costumes, we would use the same almanac as in PvZ2, but adapted to PvZ1, as shown in the image: I hope you liked the idea. Thank you for reading, and any additions/changes to the suggestion are welcome.
Gam3rPro2021
New Adventurer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™: Replanted
19Views
1like
1Comment
GW2 on PC is completely unplayable
The title explains the problem. Some internet sleuths found out that the 10th anniversary drew the attention of a hacker who created a [Edit - CM] mod to completely break the game and make it unplayable. Every single lobby has the same wonky settings (like invisible players and 1hp) and the lag gets out of control to the point that the game crashes. It's not just the North American servers either, every single region has this issue. It has been like this over 24 hours now. The fact that this person was able to do this, and the fact that it has been 24 hours of radio silence from EA just further invites hackers to come take shots at the game on PC. It's just embarrassing all around that EA is currently having their servers held hostage on one of their games (a game that they have available to play for free via EA plus and Xbox Game Pass, so it's not like this can be kept hush hush). And yes, I understand that when a developer makes another game with dedicated servers in a franchise the vast majority of resources goes to that game (looking at you, Neighborville) but still... no server support? None?
Ir0nfac3
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
726Views
10likes
15Comments
Wrong Item Received
I just bought the 10$ 250 Fire Peashooter seed packs, and after sometime it gave me 250 BoingSetta seeds instead. I issued a refund on the playstore and it was successful. So I repurchase the pack again and it still gives 250 Boingsetta seeds and doesnt allow me to refund
auaoxm9z7yhf
Newcomer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
18Views
0likes
0Comments
Level can not be Beaten
Hello, Playing pv2 extra hard wild level against zomboss and over 30times I tried to beat him but it’s impossible. please help
katjaermert
Newcomer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
27Views
0likes
1Comment
need help with some purchases not restoring on my current pvz2 save file
Years ago my save file got deleted again by ea for no reason and they denied it but I decided to just move on with it, currently made a new save file to try and gat back into the game but only some of the purchases have restored and not everything returned to my current player ID, tried contacting the support for help but I swear its like talking to an AI when in the live chat, the help employee's either don't care enough to do their job and help their customers or they aren't qualified for this job or maybe its both idk. I contacted them through email instead of going into the live chat and those people actually asked me for proof of purchases which I happily provided to them, then they keep taking long with every single response back to me and asking me to re-send them the proof of purchases in a different way that they want, and they they still refuse to help me restore my purchases tied with my google play account, one agent even admitted that what I explained to them about how they should be able to restore my purchases was correct, and that guy closed the chat after confirming what I said was right, this is a very unprofessional act of behaviour by the employees here at EA help with some of them just being rude as well overall, if anyone has an actual solution as to how to possibly fix these purchases not restoring I would absolutely appreciate it
Peanutpal1234
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ 2
13Views
0likes
0Comments
PvZ Heroes: bugfix found for nibble softlock glitch
Hey PvZ Heroes developers! First of all, thank you guys for your great work on continuing to update the game. In case you all haven't found a way to fix the bug where nibble freezes the game when it destroys a plant with a "when destroyed" ability, I believe I've found a solution after digging a bit into the game files. I found that if the DiscardFromPlayTrigger effect in nibble's conjure ability is changed to a BuffTrigger effect instead (keeping the part where the card checks for if the plant was destroyed by nibble), the card will no longer freeze the game when destroying plants with "when destroyed" effects (as far as I could tell from my testing). You guys might have found this fix already, but in case you haven't, I hope this helps! Looking forward to seeing the bug get fixed and other future updates. Also — if any developers for other PvZ games see this, it would be great if you could forward this to the PvZ Heroes team if possible!
VoidSpiral78
Seasoned Newcomer
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
305Views
2likes
2Comments
Missing Deluxe Content (Chick’n & Judge Z) - Switch Complete Edition
Hello. I purchased PvZ: Battle for Neighborville Complete Edition on the Nintendo eShop, but the Deluxe Content (Skins for Peas of Chick'n and Judge Z) is missing from my account.I’ve already contacted Nintendo Support (Case #260222-005199 and they confirmed my license is active. I also spoke with EA Chat (Case #238457006 , but they couldn't grant the items manually and sent me here.Could a Community Manager please verify my linked EA Account and sync the Entitlements for the Deluxe Content? I have my eShop receipt ready to provide as proof. Thank you!
AngelTapia2106
New Novice
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
118Views
0likes
1Comment
DO NOT SHUTDOWN GW1 ON PS3!
I am going to begin this with a very obvious point, This game is most likely the best version of garden warfare to play in 2026, The lobby’s are full there’s a active player base in every game mode during any hour of the day. So this begs the question why do it to the PS3 version? Some may say “vulnerability” during my whole 5 years of playing this game on my ps3 console I’ve experienced 2 hackers each time all I did was report them: Then never saw them again. I never experienced problems with people supposedly grabbing IP’s as all they have are internal ones. That can’t do anything without being on my Network. besides this is a kids game and most people who do mess around with cheats play once and get bored since it’s a KIDS game. With this being one of the most active ps3 games and an experience not only for me but everyone! Especially children in less fortunate areas who want to turn to play a mid friendly game just for it to be shut down soon. Just pathetic anyone lets starts a protest against it on these forums and social media. #SAVEGW1PS3
hidgiymv3r41
Rising Novice
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
154Views
2likes
2Comments
Keep PlantsVsZombies Garden Warfare online on the PS3
Even now, 12 years after release you can jump in and find people playing, full lobbies, and that same magic that made us fall in love with the game in the first place. It’s still so active, and it feels like we’re losing a home. What hurts the most is that we haven’t really been told why. It feels like the plug is being pulled on us without any real explanation or a fair chance to show you how much we still care about this game. Please, don't just erase all these years of memories. If there’s any way to keep the servers running, or at least give us a clear reason why this is happening, the community deserves that much. We aren't ready to let go of GW1. Please listen to your players. We're still here and we're still playing. #SAVEGW1PS3
FunKitVladutz
Seasoned Newcomer
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
27Views
0likes
0Comments
KEEP PVZ GW1 ON PS3!
I am going to begin this with a very obvious point, This game is most likely the best version of garden warfare to play in 2026, The lobby’s are full there’s a active player base in every game mode during any hour of the day. So this begs the question why do it to the PS3 version? Some may say “vulnerability” during my whole 5 years of playing this game on my ps3 console I’ve experienced 2 hackers each time all I did was report them: Then never saw them again. I never experienced problems with people supposedly grabbing IP’s as all they have are internal ones. That can’t do anything without being on my Network. besides this is a kids game and most people who do mess around with cheats play once and get bored since it’s a KIDS game. With this being one of the most active ps3 games and an experience not only for me but everyone! Especially children in less fortunate areas who want to turn to play a mid friendly game just for it to be shut down soon. Just pathetic anyone lets starts a protest against it on these forums and social media. #SAVEGW1PS3
hidgiymv3r41
Rising Novice
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
91Views
2likes
1Comment
EA don't shutdown GW1 for the PS3. It's still a very active version of the game!
For context It's the only way a lot of people can play the game. Not to mention, it's still active that you can find full lobbies of Gardens & Graveyards and Team Vanquish, and sometimes other modes. Please EA, consider revising this shutdown.
300lc
New Novice
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™ Franchise Discussion
115Views
2likes
2Comments
Please Fix The Dance Cheat
After reaching 500ft on your tree of wisdom, the game claims you have unlocked the dance cheat, but it is no where to be found in the sunglasses menu. It would be as easy as adding it to the menu when you unlock it. I would appreciate it if this was added in the next patch.
defnotnam3
Seasoned Novice
2 days ago Place Plants vs. Zombies™: Replanted
37Views
3likes
1Comment

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Plants vs Zombies is turning 16 today!

Battle for Neighborville: A reflection on it's death.

Account Recovery: May 2023 Activity - Support says Player ID is "Empty"

Sometimes i can't redeem my daily quest for completing 8 daily activities.

Bug

Service Update: Garden Warfare on PS3

Unable to play extra hard level of wild west

Co-op survival endless not saving progress

PVZ improvement

Skin Shop for PvZ Replanted

GW2 on PC is completely unplayable

Wrong Item Received

Level can not be Beaten

need help with some purchases not restoring on my current pvz2 save file

PvZ Heroes: bugfix found for nibble softlock glitch

Missing Deluxe Content (Chick’n & Judge Z) - Switch Complete Edition

DO NOT SHUTDOWN GW1 ON PS3!

Keep PlantsVsZombies Garden Warfare online on the PS3

KEEP PVZ GW1 ON PS3!

EA don't shutdown GW1 for the PS3. It's still a very active version of the game!

Please Fix The Dance Cheat

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