EA adds microtransactions to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare next week

As we’ve long expected, Microtransactions will be added to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare next week, Electronic Arts has announced.

According to a post on EA’s website from Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Producer Brian Lindley, starting next week, players will be given the option to purchase coins from the Sticker Shop, which allows players the ability to access new packs and character content more quickly. The same content can be earned through regular gameplay, but now you can pay for a shortcut.

“Now you have the choice to play your way,” Lindley said. “You can play to get new packs and content via earned coins in the game, or you can purchase coins to get more of the packs and content you want right away.”

Lindley previously said that Garder Warfare wouldn't feature microtransactions at launch, and it didn’t, but he never ruled out the possibility of adding it later.

Garden Warfare’s packs contain randomized items, so you’re likely to buy a lot of them before you get any one particular item you want. As GameSpot editor Carolyn Petit wrote back in February, it seems like this system was designed with in-app purchases in mind all along:

“The potential for player disappointment and frustration in this randomized system is significant, and it seems to me that the developers of the game must have been aware of it, and could easily have designed around it. Which makes me suspect that maybe they didn't want to design around it. Maybe they want you to get a little frustrated. Why? So that you can alleviate those frustrations by spending a little money, once microtransactions are introduced.”

On the other hand, developer PopCap is at least being generous in other ways, releasing the game’s DLC for free.

For more on Garden Warfare, check out GameSpot’s review.