PopCap and Sony Ericsson have just announced a partnership that will put classic games like Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, and Chuzzle onto the upcoming Xperia Mini and Mini Pro Android smartphones. This is the first time PopCap’s games have landed on Android devices in Europe, though they’ve been available in the U.S. through Amazon for a few months now.
Both phones land squarely in the mid-range, with a 3-inch 320 x 480 touchscreen, 1 GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, and running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The only real difference between the two is a slide-out keyboard, much like the two original Xperia Mini devices. We had a chance to try both sequel devices at Google I/O, if you want a closer look. As for PopCap, they made their fortune from Flash games on the web, and have been making a big push into mobile over the last year or so. Plants vs. Zombies is my favourite game of theirs; in it, you have to defend your home from oddly-equipped zombies by using strategically-planted greenery. Different plants have different kinds of attacks, as do the zombie hordes. The more you play, the more plants you unlock.
PopCap had recently announced that they were being bought by EA, which is a pretty massive move for both companies, and will no doubt lead to other big partnerships like this one with Sony Ericsson. Sony Ericsson has already aggressively tackled the smartphone gaming crowd with the Xperia Play, and I can’t help but think that these PopCap games might be optimized for its dedicated controls soon enough.
[via PRNewswire]